Deputations and public questions to council, each opening on what council's minutes record of it.
2026-02-19
Public question
Ordinary Meeting
Andy Taylor
Heard at the meeting. Council's recording has these questions from 1:07; our transcript is below.
▶ Hear it — council's recording, from 1:07
The feed timestamps the whole public question block rather than each speaker, so this starts at the top of that block.
What the minutes record
Question 1
With consideration to the previously provided engineer's report for the gravel road section of Cooroy Mountain Road does Noosa Council intend to allocate any funds to the repair of the gravel road section of Cooroy Mountain Road in the 2026-2027 year budget?
Response from Shaun Walsh, Director Infrastructure Services
Budget submissions for capital expenditure for the 26/27 Financial Year are currently being prepared, so at this stage it is not possible to determine if capital funding will be allocated to Cooroy Mountain Road in the 2026/27 financial year. The engineering report presented is noted and the request for sealing the remaining section of Cooroy Mountain Road will be considered along with other similar requests on other parts of the unsealed road network. Council maintains approximately 200km of unsealed roads across the region and prioritisation for upgrades to gravel roads considers many factors such as vehicle type and volumes, average speeds, crash history, road geometry, road function and road performance. Council also undertakes maintenance in the form of grading, pavement patching, drainage works and vegetation management.
Question 2
Given the confirmed risk as outlined in the provided independent engineer's report for the gravel road section of Cooroy Mountain Road can council confirm the current priority ranking of the gravel road section of Cooroy Mountain Road for repair?
Response from Shaun Walsh, Director Infrastructure Services
Council notes the engineers report and confirms the road has been inspected by experienced engineering officers. There are no immediate defects requiring urgent repair, but it is noted that the road does require all users to drive to conditions, consistent with all unsealed roads in the Shire. Council maintains its unsealed road network on a cyclical maintenance program for production and cost efficiencies in accordance with adopted service standards. Requests for upgrade are prioritised as outlined previously. It is noted that sectional upgrades, as opposed to complete length upgrade, provides a more cost-effective treatment of specific hazards for any future upgrade works.
This is council's own minuted record, in council's words. Nothing is reworded: the questions, headings and bullets are laid out as the printed minutes set them. Left out are the speaker's name (it heads this page), the minutes' page-header dates, and any “meeting adjourned” line the extract caught. Where an officer answered, the answer is minuted with the question and appears above.
Transcript of the recording
What this is. Transcript of council's recording, produced by automatic speech recognition and not checked line by line against the video. Names and figures are where this kind of transcript fails first. It is our transcript, not council's record. Recording © Noosa Shire Council. Council's own recording is linked above; where the two differ, the recording governs.
1:07 Mayor Wilkie: The first application with two questions is from Mr Andy Taylor. Mr Taylor couldn't be here today, but Councillor Lawrenson will read his questions, which will be answered by Shaun Walsh, Director of Infrastructure Services. Councillor Lawrenson.
1:21 Councillor Lorentson: Question 1. With consideration to the previously provided engineer's report, for the gravel road section of Cooroy Mountain Road, does Noosa Council intend to allocate any funds to the repair of the gravel road section of Cooroy Mountain Road in the 2026-2027 year budget?
1:43 Mayor Wilkie: Here comes Director Walsh.
1:47 Director Walsh: Thank you, Andy, for the question, read by Councillor Lawrenson. Budget submissions for the capital expenditure for the 2026-2027 financial year are currently being prepared, so at this stage it is not possible to determine if capital funding will be allocated to Cooroy Mountain Road in the 2026-2027 financial year. The engineering report presented is noted, and the request for sealing the remaining section of Cooroy Mountain Road will be considered along with other similar requests on other parts of the unsealed road network. Council maintains approximately 200 kilometres of unsealed roads across the region, and prioritisation for upgrades to gravel roads considers many factors such as vehicle type of volumes, average speeds, crash history, road geometry, road function and road performance. Council also undertakes maintenance in the form of grading, pavement patching, drainage works and vegetation management.
2:39 Mayor Wilkie: Thank you, Director Walsh. Councillor Lawrenson.
2:42 Councillor Lorentson: Question 2. Given the confirmed risk as outlined in the provided independent engineer's report for the gravel road section of Cooroy Mountain Road, can Council confirm the current priority ranking of the gravel road section of Cooroy Mountain Road for repair?
3:00 Director Walsh: Thank you, Andy, for the question, read by Councillor Lawrenson. Council notes the engineer's report and confirms the road has been inspected by experienced engineering officers. There are no immediate defects requiring urgent repair, but it is noted that the road does require all users to drive to conditions consistent with all unsealed roads in the Shire. Council maintains its unsealed road network on a cyclical maintenance program for production and cost efficiencies in accordance with adopted service standards. Requests for upgrade are prioritised, as outlined previously. It is noted that sectional upgrades, as opposed to complete length upgrade, provides a more cost-effective treatment of specific hazards for any future upgrade works.
3:40 Mayor Wilkie: Thank you, Director Walsh.
Others who spoke that day