Life on hold in bypass limbo
stevem
in Highway Bypass, Local Stress
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20.01.2007
SHANE and Debbie Warnes should be sitting pretty.
Their comfortable acreage just out of town on Sandy Creek Road should be worth squillions any time they want to sell or subdivide.
Instead, they are in limbo, because of the State Government’s plans to demolish their hand-made two-storey home to make way for the Bruce Highway by-pass of Gympie.
Like many East Gympie residents and home owners, they cannot sell or improve their properties.
Because the Government does not intend to pay them until it needs their land for actual construction, probably in 10 to 15 years time, they cannot move either.
“We built the house ourselves, under the supervision of a mate who’s a builder,” Shane said yesterday, enjoying a Coke in the breezeway-entertainment area, while the kids kept cool in the couple’s backyard swimming pool.
One cruel irony, says Debbie, is that the Warnes bought the land from the State Government in 1992, from the Railways.
“One part of the Government’s Transport Department didn’t want it any more and now another, Main Roads, wants to take it back,” Shane said.
“We’re right in the middle of it. We’ll go. But it could be even longer than they expect before they actually pay us the money.
“In the meantime, you can’t mortgage and you can’t sell.”
Debbie says they are not the only people with such a story. “A young couple here were in the process of building a house, but when the map came out, the bank stopped their finance and they’re stuck,” she said.
“We put all our money straight into the house. Now I wish we hadn’t, if they’re not going to pay us.”
Shane says people in the way of the highway should be treated equally with those affected by the Traveston Crossing dam proposal.
“We don’t want to go any more than they do and we’re still hoping for a change of Government (and a rethink to put the highway further east).
“Another problem is we may well be up for capital gains, unless we spend the money on a property very similar, and there are no such properties around any more.”
Meanwhile Mayor Mick Venardos says he is optimistic about the prospects of a Government re-think on the entitlements of property owners.
“I’m waiting for (Transport Minister) Paul Lucas to write to me confirming what happened at the meeting and setting out the Government’s position, but I am optimistic after meeting with him on Thursday,” he said.
stevem
Highway compo promise
24.01.2007
THE Federal Government yesterday promised early compensation payments for victims of the Bruce Highway’s new route past Gympie.
In a major breakthrough for people whose properties are to be resumed for the highway, Federal MP Warren Truss told yesterday’s weekly council meeting that Canberra would pay up now, despite State Government claims that it is holding up the works.
Mr Truss was closely questioned at yesterday’s weekly Cooloola Shire Council meeting about the prospects of immediate compensation for people who had been told that they might not be compensated for 10 to 15 years for properties which had been rendered virtually valueless by plans for the highway’s eastern by-pass of Gympie.
Mayor Mick Venardos told Mr Truss, who until recently held the Federal Transport portfolio, that his State counterpart, Paul Lucas, had blamed the Commonwealth for delayed payments to highway victims.
Mr Lucas had said that such payments were the Commonwealth’s responsibility.
Cr Ian Petersen said people whose properties were likely to be affected were currently “in limbo” because, while they could not develop or sell their land, they also could not go elsewhere because compensation would not be paid until their land was actually required for highway construction – possibly in 10 years time or more.
“To be fair,” Mr Truss replied, “the State hasn’t asked for the money.”
However, he made it clear that Mr Lucas should get onto it immediately.
“The Federal Government will co-operate with the State Government to make early payments to highway-affected residents,” Mr Truss said. “There will be issues that need to be resolved.”
Mr Truss said work on finalising the precise route of the eastern bypass is advancing.
However, he warned that costs are already blowing out on projects such as the by-pass and the separate issue of the upgrading of the existing highway route through Gympie.
“That’s why we get so little road for $35 million (the original estimate of the cost of the through-Gympie upgrade).
“Costs have approximately doubled in the past three or four years, for both the by-pass and the upgraded highway through Gympie.
“We may need tighter project management, but we are also dealing with a comparatively uncompetitive market for tendering. There is a lot of work about and fuel is expensive. It’s a $70 million project now,” he said.
On the bypass, he said work is now proceeding to develop a refined route, with a map to go on public display at the end of next month. “That doesn’t mean even that can’t be changed,” he said.
Detailed engineering and environmental studies could yet require it to be shifted, but people would have “a fair idea of likely impact on their properties.
“I hope we can settle on a route as soon as possible. Inevitably, some private properties will be affected, no matter which route is chosen, either directly because the highway is going through their properties or indirectly because it affects them, either to add value to their properties or to lessen their value,” he said.
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