{"id":29036,"date":"2013-04-03T21:43:15","date_gmt":"2013-04-03T11:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=29036"},"modified":"2020-09-23T18:16:49","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T08:16:49","slug":"park-sale-disgraceful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2013\/04\/03\/park-sale-disgraceful\/","title":{"rendered":"Park Sale ‘Disgraceful’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Greens candidate for Maranoa Grant Newson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

April 3, 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

Residents of Kingaroy and the South Burnett should be seriously alarmed at how easily a public park can be sold off regardless of the massive disapproval of ratepayers, Greens Candidate for Maranoa Grant Newson said today.<\/p>\n

Mr Newson told southburnett.com.au<\/strong> he thought selling off a piece of Adermann Park in Kingaroy to St John’s School was “disgraceful”.<\/p>\n

“They’ve disregarded all the petitioners for a sale to a private business,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Public assets should not be sold off. It’s a sad day for the community of Kingaroy to lose a piece of park space.”<\/p>\n

Mr Newson said he also had issues about the process taken by South Burnett Regional Council.<\/p>\n

He said he’d used the public consultation period to conduct a door-to-door survey to learn how people living in the neighbourhood viewed the proposal, and had done so as a private citizen who believed the sale was wrong, not as a Greens candidate.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn overwhelming percentage of random people I approached objected to this sale of their already limited public park area.”<\/p>\n

Mr Newson said South Burnett Mayor Wayne Kratzmann commenting on radio that the sale was a \u201cfait accompli\u201d and Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington giving the sale her “blessing” displayed either “ignorance of due process or arrogance towards the people of the South Burnett”.<\/p>\n

“Council cannot deny their involvement in this process as they wrote letters supporting the sale of this public parkland to DNRM and others,” he said.<\/p>\n

“This statement of position by Councillors on this matter (was made) before any consideration was given to public opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouncil’s claim that there is a surplus of park lands in Kingaroy is rubbish, just like they tried to claim that the cost of maintenance was a factor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just saved over $200,000 per year by stopping the toxic fluoridation of the undrinkable town water. That would mow the lawn for a few years.<\/p>\n

“The LNP position on the sale of public assets goes well beyond just the electricity grid and health care, where will this continual \u2018sell everything\u2019 mentality end?”<\/p>\n

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