Transition The Grove is strongly promoting the importance of community consultation to give us all as good a chance as possible to put forward what we think is needed in the area to find out what is being done and to build good workable relationships with our elected and Council representatives.
Even when consultation does happen the processes for alerting the community that an opportunity for input is occurring can be obscure. How do we know? How is it announced? How can groups like Transition The Grove with a keen interest in local community and facilities have a chance to participate and be consulted?
For example the community consultation in September that resulted in information about the needs in Keperra happened without us hearing anything about it.
We also need similar community consultations happening for Ferny Grove and Upper Kedron.
The Enoggera Ward in which Upper Kedron Ferny Grove and Keperra are situated is elongated a bit like a long sausage with the Ward Office right at one end (the opposite end to The Grove unfortunately). It is quite a long drive to get to the Ward Office and access by public transport would be difficult for most of us.
The Ward is also divided by the quite high ridge running across from the bottom of the range behind Great Western Super Centre down Samford Rd and along Church Rd. So the Ward is two separate valley bowls separated by a ridge.
Our need is to ensure that our Councillor looks after us in The Grove suburbs on this side of the ridge as much as he looks after the suburbs on the other side of the ridge much closer to his Ward Office.
The Grove has historically been in quite a marked ‘rain shadow’ for resources. It is very easy for developments to go to Mitchelton or Chermside or close to the Ward Office at Alderley/Enoggera. For example the hub of services at Mitchelton around the Library & senior citizens centre are meant to serve us here in The Grove too but they are quite a long drive from here (in the order of 7kms) and close to inaccessible by public transport. However since they are there we are not seen as having a need here in The Grove.
Even when funds do come back to The Grove it is easier for them to flow towards the Arana Leagues hub which is an attractor. It is close to the boarder of what was the Pine Rivers Shire.
There are clear signs walking around parks in the Kings Park area of Keperra or Ferny Grove (ex. Movilla Park) that it is very difficult to attract funds to this side of the valley.
Persistent requests for small meeting rooms that small community groups can have easy access to without major bureaucratic challenges and excessive expense have so far been unsuccessful because of facilities elsewhere such as Mitchelton.
Keen desire for concrete bike/ walking tracks along the Ferny Grove end of Kedron Brook seems to be wishing for the moon. Yet only in the last few days we have driven around some quite remote parts of the Moreton Bay Shire Council and there have been very extensive concrete cycle/ walking paths (ex. Morayfield Ferny Hills along Cedar Creek with a beautiful track by mown lawn to the creek well provided with play equipment drinking fountains picnic facilities)