ULDA - My View

Most people would be aware of the Clearview Rise development being undertaken by the ULDA in Roma near the hospital. The concept is a noble one, to provide additional housing in Roma to alleviate the pressure on the property market there.

I have concerns that the development has been allowed to occur without regard to the planning scheme for Roma town. Things such as minimum lot sizes and boundary clearances under the planning scheme have been disregarded. I fear that an area of High intensity housing within the Roma town area will lead to the creation of a number of social issues. No-one likes living in someone else’s pocket.

I am also disappointed that the ULDA has disregarded local businesses in awarding the tenders for the development and construction of Clearview Rise. Awarding these contracts to outside companies only goes to increase the pressure on Roma’s housing stocks in the short term.

 

The use of Outside contractors also provides no long term benefits for local tradesmen and suppliers. The ULDA has said that they didn’t ask local suppliers and contractors as they where currently working at capacity. I think it is a slap in the face to these businesses to be overlooked in this matter. If the work was there, there may have been opportunities for local businesses to grow or to form partnerships and joint ventures with other suppliers to fill the need. For the ULDA to ignore the local businesses in Roma in this regard is shameful.

ULDA will do little to solve the housing crisis in Roma, with the real underlying issue of housing affordability in Roma being the high cost of RENTAL accommodation. We cannot retain the long term residents and staff in industries outside the oil and gas sector when we have rental prices than in some cases can equal 100% of the take home wages of some workers. In many mining towns, the growth of local business is stifled through not being able to employ staff due to the high cost of housing.

We need to be looking for ways to address the accommodation shortage, while retaining as much of the existing value in the homes of residents as possible, we do not want to implement a rental solution that strips the resale value of the existing homes. Council as custodian of land stocks around the town is able to partner with housing providers to provide innovative solutions to this problem.

Roma and some of the surrounding towns need access to fixed rental housing for people outside of the resources sector, the ULDA will do nothing to address this problem.