Park saga ‘not over yet’

NEWS

City Councillor David Hinchliffe has warned that the State Government’s recent canning of the re-zoning of Howard Smith Wharves parkland to allow for new hotel and commercial development might not be the endof the controversial project.

“If there is a change of government and former Lord Mayor Campbell Newman becomes Premier, a new hotel plus three new commercial buildings on that small parkland site will be back on the agenda,” Cr Hinchliffe believes.
“I know Campbell and he’s stubborn. The four new buildings for this area were his baby. He won’t give up easily even though it was severely flooded in January.
“This area is zoned ‘parkland’ and already has four heritage listed buildings. It’s hard enough coping with four buildings that could potentially be flooded let alone another four, including a 13,000sqm seven-storey hotel.
“I have $404,000 in my Ward Parks Trust Fund earmarked for this park. I want to have that money spent on cleaning the site up and turning the area not covered by the existing buildings into parkland.
“If the area was converted to parkland now and boutique coffee shops etc in the wharves and the Water Police building, it will be so much harder in years to come to build on the parkland area.”