This is an Australian track.
New anti-corruption laws in Queensland have prompted Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe to sack the entire Ipswich City Council.
More than 200,000 people in Ipswich are now under the leadership of a management team and administrator until the next Queensland local government elections in 2020.
Sardine Cities in Ipswich
The Ipswich Ratepayers Against Toxic Environments has campaigned for years on Ipswich City Council deals with waste management companies using former mine sites as dumps and on so-called “sardine city” developments.
“We have been keeping a close eye on the relationship between developers and councils and the mayor,” says Mr Dodrill, “and with the type of developments, which have been basically consuming the city”.
“We refer to them as sardine city developments,” he says.
“The eaves of the rooves of the houses are almost touching,” he says, “you can’t wheel a wheelie bin between the houses because they’re too close together”.
“The fire brigade have been concerned for some time about it because they can’t get a fire hose between the houses because they’re too close together.
“Because it’s so high density, there are no trees, no shade, no place any kind of animals.
“There aren’t even insects in these developments because there’s nowhere for them to exist.”
Something fishy: council lacked resistance to development
Mr Dodrill says the developments approved by the Ipswich City Council lack green spaces and are producing social problems.
“There’s no consideration for the welfare of young people growing up in those areas,” he says.
“Developers have moved in over the past eight to ten years and started buying up all the acreage blocks and subdividing them.
“There’s been no resistance from the council to changing the character of that part of Ipswich.
“The council didn’t even hesitate to approve the subdivision of those acreage plots into these sardine developments.”
Waste mines and mountains
Alongside satellite city developments, the Ipswich City Council had been encouraging waste companies to rehabilitate former coalmines as dumps.
Mr Dodrill says some of the companies have been filling the mines but want to pile waste up above ground, creating waste mountains.
“I live less than a kilometre from the Cleanaway dump at New Chum, it’s one of the largest in Australia,” he says.
“They take things like asbestos in there, hundreds of tons of asbestos.
“They take regulated waste, which is all kinds of toxic waste, lead-contaminated, Arsenic-contaminated, heavy metals contaminated materials go in there.
“We virtually live in the shadow of that dump.”
Mr Dodrill says prior to IRATE taking an interest, the dump “was just one big hole in the ground and they threw everything in and that was it”.
“After significant lobbying from us, they were forced to lift their standards,” he says.
Life after the sacking
“A great dark cloud has been taken away,” Mr Dodrill says about the Ipswich City Council sacking.
Mr Dodrill says the council acted as a block, so it was “very difficult to challenge them on anything”.
“We get far better results now than we did by going through councillors previously,” he says.
He says the people of Ipswich are now interacting directly with people in government departments.
“We’ve cut out the middle man, we’ve cut out the people who were interfering with the proper governance of the city.
“It’s just been a huge improvement.”