I’m proud of what I’ve delivered in this term of Government, including significant funding for local public and private schools, $15m in funding for local sporting and community clubs to help with female changerooms', new fields, lighting and nets, the hosting of our annual Eco Forum and annual Small Business of the Year awards.
But a term is never enough! And together we can achieve great things for our local community. Please take a look at the thing’s I’ve been working on, and my plan for our area:
A review into Waterworks Road
Waterworks Road is one of Queensland’s most dangerous roads, and it’s getting worse as our population grows and minor efforts are made by Brisbane City Council to invest in public and active transport. Waterworks Road has not had a review in over 20 years, support my call to have this road reviewed – with options to ease congestion including public and active transport along this western arterial considered.
A library for The Gap
The Gap is home to over 18,000 people and still there’s no public library. A library for The Gap would provide space for local community groups, study space for seniors, learning resources for everyone and connectivity for groups like U3A. Join me in calling on Brisbane City Council to fund a public library for The Gap.
Completion of grounds and clubhouse for GPS Rugby and Valley’s District Cricket Club
The Ashgrove Sports Ground is home to GPS Rugby and Valley’s District Cricket Club, two of Brisbane’s oldest historic clubs. Each season thousands of people attend these fields to support their local clubs, this places incredible pressure on the Ground’s infrastructure including onsite parking. I was proud to deliver $2.5m in funding in 2020 to significantly upgrade the GPS and Valley’s Clubhouse, including female changerooms’, new bathrooms, a merch shed and strength and conditioning rooms. The next stage is to finalise the parking and landscaping for the club to provide sufficient and safe parking for players and supporters, while removing cars from parking on surrounding residential roads.
Future-proofing the Bardon La Trobe Soccer Club
Bardon La Trobe Football Club is one of Brisbane’s oldest and busiest clubs, with around one-thousand registered players. I was proud to deliver the funding to upgrade the field lighting, ensuring that the lighting is compliant, and is directional to reduce the light spill into residential homes, and, to deliver funding to develop female changerooms’ to meet the club’s growing demand from female athletes. The next stage is to upgrade the clubhouse and landscaping to future-proof this historic club.
Historical and shaded walking trails for Paddington
Located just 3klm from the Brisbane CBD, the suburb of Paddington is many things. It's home to around 9,000 people, it's a vibrant small business community and consequently a wonderful local tourist destination. Paddington however is sadly lacking in Council investment. Small businesses are suffering with a lack of parking and public transport, locals have been requesting pocket parks and more walkable paths for years, and cyclists have continually raised the lack of dedicated active transport infrastructure. I am urgently calling on additional investment in Paddington and surrounds, in the areas of:
Additional deep planting (leveraging off the work completed by Planting the Terraces)
Street activation through heritage walks highlighting areas of historic interest
Additional council funding to promote the vibrant retail and trade industry in the area
A review into local parking and transport options - with consideration given to how to best meet trader's needs alongside residential impacts
You can support this campaign below. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/walkablePaddo
Additional investment in housing for retirees, those with a disability, and frontline workers
Every month more and more people move to Brisbane, which is placing incredible pressures on our services and infrastructure including housing. The key areas of concern I have for this are:
Residents tell me that there are few retirement options in our suburbs, including registered retirement villages or even smaller one and two bedroom apartments. Resulting in seniors either holding onto larger family homes or being forced to retire outside of their community.
There are limited choices for people with a disability, particularly in the rental market. Additionally, families with an adult child with an intellectual disability are really struggling to find local supported accommodation (including respite accommodation) which causes increasing anxiety as parents age, and
Frontline workers like Teachers and Police, and service workers like cleaners and hospitality workers are unable to afford to reside in the area. This results in incredibly long commutes and often means that local vacancies run unfilled.
I am calling on all levels of government to work together to prioritise local accommodation options in these priority areas. Please support my campaign below - https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/housingforcooper
Returning the Platypus to Enoggera and Ithaca Creeks
Platypus historically lived in Enoggera Creek catchment, but recently sightings have been rare and recent environmental DNA testing failed to detect platypus, which suggests that they have become (locally) extinct. The good news is that we can bring them back. I have been working with local community organisation The Gap Sustainability Initiative to tackle the challenge of rewilding platypus. We would love your help, please join our campaign. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CooperPlatypus
Upgraded fields for The Gap Football Club
The Gap Football Club has almost 1000 registered players and provides a strong pathway for both male and female players who want to either play for fitness or competitively.
The impact of games and training on the club's fields is high, and we're exploring ways to resolve this including converting one of the fields into a synthetic field. This would allow the other fields to be rested, and for our local athletes to continue training.
If this is something you care about, please lend your support to this campaign below. [LINK TO PETITION - https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/thegapfc]
Community Centre for The Gap
Despite having a population of 18,000 residents, Council has not invested in a Community Centre for our area. A community centre for The Gap would provide a space for the hundreds of local community organisations who meet, work on solving local problems and reduce isolation for vulnerable people. Please lend your support to this campaign below. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CommunityCenterTheGap
