Councillor Charles Strunk’s petition fighting for better council maintenance has been submitted with 461 local signatures to the Brisbane City Council.
The petition called for the attention of the Brisbane City Council Lord Mayor and Councillors to the lack of regular grass cutting across road verges and parks across Forest Lake, Inala, Doolandella, Durack and Ellen Grove.
“By January and February they weren’t really cutting it at all, and the grass just kept growing because we had a lot of rain, so the parks were overgrown and the street verges were overgrown.”
Cr Strunk said locals had been taking grass cutting in public parks and walkways into their own hands after brown snakes were spotted in park areas.
Some of the biggest problems caused with the overgrowth include the increased risk of snakes, rodents, and plants invading people’s backyards.
“The walkways that go from park to park and village to village have been neglected as well and have been for some time, so we’re targeting those as well now,” he said.
In some parts of the Forest Lake ward the grass was not mowed at all between November 2021 and May 2022 and had grown up to a metre high.
Cr Strunk said Forest Lake was not the only ward affected by council neglect, but other areas including Jamboree and Moorooka had also been impacted.
“From June back through to April, in my ward there were 290 people who rang up the call centre complaining about the parks and road verges and green spaces around the ward. 163 of those were just from Forest Lake ward residents,” he said.
Council maintenance across some parts of the Forest Lake ward have improved as community voices have started to be heard.
Although the petition has now closed, Cr Strunk encourages local residents to continue to contact his office with future complaints about maintenance neglect.
“They won’t be used in that petition, but it will be included in debates and things like that,” he said.
