Canal and lake waterways and revetment walls – managing and funding maintenance

Redland City Council on 25 June 2018 adopted its 2018-19 Budget, which includes a move away from special charges for canal and lake properties, and the introduction of new rating categories for Raby Bay canal properties to fund revetment wall repairs in the estate.

In addition, Council will pay for all dredging at the city’s canal and lake estates.

Council will also pay for 10 per cent of the cost of works on revetment walls at Raby Bay, which reflects slightly more than the percentage of revetment walls that are owned by Council, bordering public facilities such as parks.

Council will continue to manage the canals and lake maintenance programs, including revetment wall repairs. This provides residents with assurances that revetment walls will be fixed should problems arise.

Council’s Capital Works Program for 2018-19 is already in progress and will continue.

Currently there is no programmed expenditure for revetment wall works in Aquatic Paradise or Sovereign Waters, where traditionally there is very limited or no revetment walls works required.

Further information about the Budget can be found on Council’s website by clicking here.

Information about the new rating categories at Raby Bay can also be found on Council’s Budget page by clicking here.

Community Consultation

Council thanks all those who have been involved in the citywide community engagement around the best way to manage and fund the maintenance required for our city's canals and lake at Raby Bay, Aquatic Paradise and Sovereign Waters.

At the General Meeting of Council on Wednesday, 6 June 2018, Council noted the canal and lake community consultation reports.

The community engagement was completed in February 2018.

Because everyone contributes, everyone was invited to have their say.

Thank you for telling us:

• how you use the canal and lake waterways and parks,
• what you think might be the best way to manage canal and lake maintenance, and
• what you think is the fairest way to fund the costs

Thank you for getting involved through:

• Open house displays,
• Pop up stands at local shopping centres,
• Library displays, and
• Online survey

In addition more targeted community consultation occurred through:

1. A Citizens' Advisory Panel

The Citizens' Advisory Panel comprised randomly selected residents representative of the four distinct Redland communities – Canal and Lake, Coastal, Inland and Island. These residents came together over three occasions and heard from a range of independent experts, residents and council officers. They then deliberated on how council should fund and manage repairs of our canals, lakes and revetment walls.

Citizens' Advisory Panels have been found to provide fair and well considered advice to governments and organisations across the world. They show what everyday citizens would support or advise if they had access to valid information, a variety of perspectives and time to consider and discuss the issues with other citizens.

This randomly selected and independently recruited panel of residents met from December 2017 to February 2018 and discussed:

• the issues faced by canal and lake residents
• requirements to maintain these estates
• how we got to where we are
• the best way forward

The Citizens' Advisory Panel was managed by two of Australia’s best community engagement consultants: Articulous Communications and Max Hardy Consulting.

Representatives of the Redland community were also surveyed through a telephone survey undertaken by an independent market research firm.

2. Meetings with representatives of canal and lake estate ratepayer associations

Engagement with those most affected by the community consultation outcomes also included separate meetings with ratepayer associations, or estate ratepayers if no association exists.

Consultation Timeline

Community engagement was completed in February 2018.