Hazards on Gold Coast City Council property

Gold Coast City Council's pays no heed to public safety

The Gold Coast City Council is spending big on promotion and trying to attract even more visitors to the area, whilst dangerous hazards on Council property go unfixed, sometimes even after being reported.

Poorly maintained footpaths and parks across the city are exposing the public to danger of crippling injury or worse, and Council and their insurers to expensive litigation. Trees overhanging from Council parks and uncontrolled shrubs on footpaths are forcing pedestrians onto busy roads, while dangerous holes, exposed tree roots and raised sections of concrete footpaths create potential tripping hazards. Nor does there appear to be any Council monitoring of the performance of contractors employed to maintain parks.

The images below demonstrate just some of the problems. Those that are known to have been fixed have been removed ( there are always PLENTY to replace them ), but any attention was long overdue. There are MANY more examples which have not been included here.

Whilst my Councillor did come to view SOME of the problems on 30th August 2006, not all shown to him have been fixed ( as of 23rd March 2007 ), and no Council officer has accepted my offer to the Councillor for me to show them all the problems that I am aware of.

Instead, Council spent up big on items such the $45,000 sculpture of a prancing horse for Victoria Park. And there was the $25 million they outlaid for land and infrastructure for a new stadium, which was GIFTED away. And they even waived future rates on this structure so that ratepayers will have to supply and maintain the infrastructure forever, with no contribution from the recipients of this unconscionable inappropriate use of ratepayer funds.

NOT ONE resident I interviewed was in favour of the money being wasted on these projects, instead preferring more immediate problems that affect them directly be rectified. Especially when Council is relentlessly increasing rates. However Council has claimed that it would be too costly for them to monitor the areas themselves. So either nobody is giving Council feedback, or they are ignoring the complaints. But since I have drawn publicitly to this problem, several residents have advised me of other hazards they are aware of. In some cases they have said that their complaints to Council have been ignored!

Newspaper articles
Gold Goast Sun 2nd August 2006
Gold Goast Sun 25th April 2007

1. Protruding water meter 2 ( 11/07/06 )	2. Dangerous hole 1 ( 30/06/06 )
3. Protruding Telstra pit 1 ( 30/06/06 )	4. Exposed Telstra pit 2 ( 30/06/06 )
5. Dangerous hole 2 ( 30/06/06 )	6. Protruding grate ( 30/11/06 )
7. Raised footpath slab ( 30/06/06 )	8. Broken gutter ( 30/06/06 )
9. Exposed slab ( 03/09/06 ) - emailed to Councillor 06/09/06	10. Damaged gutter and footpath ( 02/05/07 )
11. Overgrown footpath ( 01/07/06 )	12. Missing cover from water meter ( 11/05/07 )
13. Badly cracked footpath ( 03/09/06 ) - emailed to Councillor 06/09/06	14. Raised slab( 03/09/06 ) - emailed to Councillor 06/09/06
15. Exceptionally dangerous hole beside electricity box ( 12/09/06 )	16. Depression beside path ( 12/09/06 )
17. Sunken slab 1 ( 07/07/06 ) - shown to Councillor 30/08/06	18. Rusted meter cover ( 05/04/07 )
19. Dangerous hole 4 ( 12/07/06 ) - shown to Councillor 30/08/06	20. Protruding stump and steel ( 12/07/06 ) - shown to Councillor 30/08/06
21. Telstra pit 3 ( 27/07/06 ) - shown to Councillor 30/08/06	22. Eroded soil beside path ( 22/10/07 )
23. Hole between water meter and path ( 04/08/06 ) - shown to Councillor 30/08/06	24. Hole in gutter ( 27/07/06 )
25. Large projecting slab ( 20/09/06 )	26. Exposed steps ( 20/09/06 )
27. Eroded footpath metres away from school ( 20/09/06 )	28. Telstra pits below path ( 22/01/07 )
29. Destroyed meter cover ( 12/12/06 )	30. Damaged utilities box ( 14/11/06 )
31. A. Exposed survey mark ( 12/07/06 ) B. Two days after " repairs " ( 3/10/06 ) C. Six months after " repairs " - see new hazard in background ( 25/04/07 )	32. Hole in footpath ( 25/04/07 )
33. Hole in footpath ( 25/04/07 )	34. Protruding metal guards - saw somebody trip on these ( 22/10/07 )