Proposed Arthur Summervilles Road child care centre: Hundreds of residents raise objections to facility opposite Karalee State School

If given the tick of approval by the council, it would be built within four kilometres of three other child care centres and across from a state school.

Residents have objcted to a new child care centre being built in Karalee.

HUNDREDS of local residents have raised objections about a proposed child care centre in a leafy Ipswich suburb, with the under fire development set to go before councillors before a final decision is made.

Griffith Group submitted a development application to Ipswich City Council in March, seeking approval to build a 116-place centre on a vacant 3198 m2 residential lot opposite Karalee State School.

If given the tick of approval, it would be built within four kilometres of three other child care centres.

Developer Griffith Group submitted plans to build a new child care centre opposite Karalee State School in March.

More than 400 properly made submissions have been lodged by concerned residents, who are concerned about the extra traffic it would bring to already narrow streets.

Another 830 have signed a petition objecting to the location of the centre on Arthur Summervilles Road.

Karalee Community Association President Dave Cullen said with about 3000 people living in Karalee, the community had sent a clear message it wasn’t wanted.

“The place can’t cope with the traffic now,” he said.

“We’re not against progress. No one is against the child care centre. I want the area to develop. We’re against where they’re putting it. There needs to be more common sense about where they’re putting this stuff.

“It’s ridiculous sometimes to get out of the suburb now. (The council) has really got to think about putting infrastructure in place before they start building this stuff.

More than 400 properly made submissions were lodged against the proposal.

“There’s no point developing these areas unless they’ve got the infrastructure and the roads in place before they start. I think they’ve got to change the way they do things. Karalee has had no money spent on it for years.”

One resident, whose home adjoins the development, said she first became aware of what was happening when tree loppers removing trees from the land told her it was going to be for a child care centre.

She did not want to be named.

“The whole community started to become very concerned with the traffic problems that are going to be caused on Arthur Summervilles Road,” she said.

“It’s a one road in, one road out community. If you have an accident on the Warrego Highway, you can’t get out of Karalee.

“When it’s time for school drop off and pick up, people are already parked all the way down the street. Council do come out and fine people but people are just parking where they can park.

“Parking is just a nightmare around the school.”

Teachers are concerned about what more cars on the road will mean for staff, parents and students with the school growing; enrolment numbers increased by about 100 to reach more than 600 over the past 10 years.

“It’s just a bad location,” the concerned resident said.

Plans for the 116-place centre on Arthur Summervilles Road.

“There’s already too many issues with parking, traffic and child safety and we don’t want to add to that.

“We already have a child care centre probably half a dozen houses down the streets. It’s not full. There’s another one just down at the roundabout at Melbourne Street. It’s not full.

“Then there’s another up at the Karalee shops and they’ve just expanded there to take on another 40 or 50 kids.

“We already cater for nearly 300 placements. There’s people coming from Mount Crosby over here to get a placement here.

“There’s a new child care centre that’s being built over there. They’re going to go back over the river when it’s built, then there’s going to be these child care centres half empty.

“We already have the issues here now and this will just compound them.”

A council spokesman said the application will be decided at the next Growth, Infrastructure and Waste Committee.

“At the committee, the proposal will be discussed and the council officer’s recommendation will be put to the council to consider,” he said.

“Council can either agree with the officer’s recommendation or make a decision that is different to the officer’s recommendation.

“In some circumstances, applications are referred to the Independent Decision Review Panel.

Residents fear the development will only add to already bad traffic issues on the road.

“The IDRP is unique to Ipswich City Council. (The panel) is called up owing to the number of submissions that council has received during the public notification part of the application process.

“The IDRP will review the council officer’s recommendation prior to the application being considered at the Growth, Infrastructure and Waste Committee. The panel will review the recommendation and provide advice as to whether they agree with the recommendation or suggest changes.

“The recommendation of the panel will be included with the decision.”

Griffith Group has stopped the decision part of the application process in order to provide additional information to address the issues raised by residents.

“Upon submission of this additional information, council officers will review this material with the view to completing the assessment of the application,” the spokesman said.

A public hearing will be held in the near future but no date has been set.

The council has not issued any fines to the developer for clearing the vegetation on site, the spokesman confirmed.

Read more stories by Lachlan McIvor here.

Originally published as Proposed Arthur Summervilles Road child care centre: Hundreds of residents raise objections to facility opposite Karalee State School