NEWS
Local council candidate Paul Crowther has called on the City Council to stop “the buck passing” and get on with cleaning up the Valley. He says his call follows advice received from the State Director-General of Local Government.
In a letter from Jack Noye, Queensland Government Director General of Local Government and Planning to Colin Jensen CEO of Brisbane City Council, Mr Noye says the BCC has the power to clean up the Valley under the Building Act 1975, where the council reasonably believes structures are dilapidated or filthy.
Mr Crowther, the ALP candidate for Central Ward soon to be vacated by retiring long-term councillor David Hinchliffe, says that despite local business owners and residents begging council to act and clean up the Valley, the LNP Council has claimed they have no power to act.
“We now know they do, and I call on Lord Mayor Quirk to get on with the job and stop the buck passing,” he said. Mr Crowther points to the abandoned, filthy and dilapidated Waltons building (pictured above) as a prime candidate for the Lord Mayor to immediately issue enforcement notices and direct the building owner to undertake cleaning and maintenance work.
“I am prepared to assist the Lord Mayor in this process of identifying these buildings and structures in the Valley to make his job easier.”
Ray Smith, Labor’s Lord Mayoral Candidate and Mr Crowther recently released their vision for the Valley, Re-Valuing the Valley which included adopting a “no broken windows policy” made famous by New York Mayor Rudi Guiliani.
