Maleny petrol station approved!

Approval fuels Maleny anger

Sunshine Coast Council last week approved controversial plans for a new petrol station opposite the Maleny primary school.

The development faced determined opposition from local and school communities concerned about the negative impacts of a petrol station on the health and safety of the school children and of local road users.

However, the concerted protests, lobbying of local and state government representatives, letter writing and a 600-plus signature petition could not sway the council planning officers to reject the application.

In reality, council could not even take the community objections into account as the development was deemed to be “code assessable” under the current town planning scheme. Those hostile to the development location are devastated.

Spokesperson for the group No Fuel Opposite Our School Ever Angie Kelly said that parents of the Maleny State School students, along with many in Maleny and the surrounding community, were furious about council’s decision to approve an eight-bowser petrol station only 50 metres from more than 400 primary school students.

“A growing number of parents are now finding an alternate school for their kids to ensure they are safeguarded from the inherent risks associated with such an inappropriate development,” she said.

“Council ignored the deeply flawed traffic impact assessment report submitted by the developer. “Traffic congestion on Bunya Street is horrendous at school drop off and pick up times. The servo will significantly add to that congestion and introduce major pedestrian safety risks to students getting to and from school,” Ms Kelly said.

She said the council had dismissed international research highlighting significant health and safety impacts on children exposed to a petrol station, with best practice recommending a minimum 150 metre buffer between a sensitive use such as a school and a petrol station.

“Many doctors and scientists have come out voicing their strong concerns about the servo development, as they too believe that the health and safety risks are too big to ignore,” Ms Kelly said.

To limit the impacts of the development on the local area, council imposed 95 planning conditions on the approval.

It has reinforced the primary function as a petrol station, with the retail sale of goods and food to remain an ancillary function with strict trading times of 5am to 10pm.

Bulk fuel deliveries must not occur between 7am and 4pm on any school day, limiting the risk to children due to spillages or vapours escaping.

Many other conditions have been imposed relating to public safety, urban design, energy efficiency, acoustic amenity, air quality and vapour recovery.

Significantly the council did not include a recommendation from the state government to restrict Lawyer Street access to exit only.

Local councillor Jenny McKay, who felt hamstrung by the process, said that she knew some in the community would be very disappointed by the decision and that she “genuinely shares those concerns”.

“This application is fully compliant with the Sunshine Coast Planning Scheme and it’s code assessable and supported by the state government through conditions to manage the traffic and safety issues,” Cr McKay said.

The state government, which was the concurrent agent and authority responsible for Bunya Street, had engineers conduct thorough investigations, which had been peer reviewed and followed by council’s engineers to provide a number of conditions to mitigate anticipated traffic and safety issues, Cr McKay said.

“These stringent conditions were included to recognise the community angst demonstrated towards this mooted facility, especially in regard to its close proximity to Maleny State School.

“I do recognise that some people have indeed supported the development. However, generally speaking, I believe that whilst the majority of the community recognised and supported the need for an additional service station facility within the Maleny precinct, I am acutely aware that the specific location has always been the great concern and continues to be so,” Cr McKay said.

But the fight may not be over yet.

Buoyed by the recent success of the Mudjimba community in a Planning and Environment Court appeal against a similar petrol station approval in their town, Maleny locals are seriously looking at their options.

“Now it is up to the local community to band together and fight this development in the courts to ensure the local and state governments meet their duty of care,” Ms Kelly said.

She called for legal professionals who care about children, community and appropriate development to connect with No Fuel Opposite Our School Ever on Facebook.