“It has taken a year for the Brisbane City Council to finally release these documents. After reading them, I’m not surprised they tried to hide them for so long,” Mr Pegg said. The council's infrastructure chairman, Amanda Cooper, said the full closure was to reduce long-term impacts for residents and road users. Emails sent between Transurban and council officers, seen by Fairfax Media, reveal the full closure was not preferred; it would provide no reduction in the construction program and, therefore, did not rationalise the substantial impact on the community. Mr Pegg said it was "unbelievable" the council overrode expert advice. Why was traffic on Illaweena Street reviewed in the first place?

Access to Illaweena Street was reviewed as part of the construction of a new Gateway Motorway bridge and a fauna arch crossing, which is part of Transurban’s Logan Motorway Enhancement Project.

A works notice issued by Transurban on September 6, 2017, said Illaweena Street between Gowan Road and Stretton Recreation Reserve would be fully closed from September 15 that year until 2019. The council is the road authority for Illaweena Street and therefore can direct Transurban to implement a closure. Why did the council close the road if it wasn’t recommended? A traffic study was completed on May 15, 2017, and considered two options for managing traffic on Illaweena Street during the Logan Motorway construction.

The first scenario was keeping a single lane open with temporary traffic signals directing reversible flow and the second option proposed closing the stretch of Illaweena Street during school holiday periods. The conclusion and recommendation from the report, prepared by construction engineering company SMEC, was to close the street during school holidays. An email exchanged between Transurban and the council’s asset management project and innovation manager, Darryl Airlie, on August 25, 2017, revealed Transurban explored the full closure of Illaweena Street, outside school holidays, after a meeting with councillor Angela Owen (Calamvale) on July 20. “Due to the interfaces with other works required on the Gateway Extension Motorway for the project, a full closure on Illaweena Street provides no reduction in the construction program, such that it would rationalise the substantial impact on the community,” Transurban wrote to Mr Airlie. “A full closure of Illaweena Street would need to be in place until early 2019 – this would impact the nearby Stretton State College, a project supporter, for an entire school year.

“TMR has also commented that a full closure is not preferred.” An email sent between Mr Airlie and an asset management colleague on August 28 asked “how do you think is going to be the best way forward” after outlining Transurban’s response. “Their preference if council is going to grant a permanent closure is for a full closure over the school holidays in September, and then partial closures till Christmas with contraflow arrangements in place, with a permanent closure from Christmas onwards,” his email said. Transurban emailed Mr Airlie again on August 31 outlining that its preferred option was the permit for full closure during school holidays and partial closure with shuttle flow during the school term. Mr Airlie said the “least-preferred option” was full closure.

In September 2017, a council spokesman said the council assessed the possibility of intermittent closures of Illaweena Street but found it would result in traffic queuing, which would impact traffic and student safety. When Fairfax Media asked the council why it closed the road permanently when it was not the required - or preferred - option, Cr Cooper said it was to "facilitate quicker construction works". Transurban told the council on August 25, 2017, the full closure would provide no reduction in the construction program. Labor MP accuses councillors of lying to the community Mr Pegg said Brisbane councillors had lied to the community about the decision to fully close Illaweena Street.

“Deputy Mayor (Adrian) Schrinner, Cr Cooper and Cr Owen lied to my community in relation to the decision to fully close Illaweena Street,” he said. “Their claim that council officers recommended Illaweena Street be fully closed were never credible. “Claims made by LNP councillors around this mess have no basis in truth.” Mr Pegg said emails from Transurban showed the full closure was only considered following a briefing with Cr Owen. When Fairfax Media approached the council for response to the claims about lying, an LNP administration spokesman said “at no stage have councillors suggested that council officers made the recommendation to fully close Illaweena Street”.

However, at a council meeting on October 24 last year, Cr Cooper spoke about the Illaweena Street closure and the role of council officers. “Council officers have to go through extensive consideration of what’s put on as a proposal before they make their determination as to what the outcome will be,” she said. “So it’s not councillors who make that decision, it is council officers. Council officers with the training and the expertise to review what’s put to them.” Similarly, Cr Owen said in a fact sheet she distributed on the project that council officers made decisions on road closures. “Council officers undertake assessments of all permit applications for any road closures,” the fact sheet said.

“Council officers make decisions on road closures across the city based on a whole-of-network perspective and a number of factors including safety for all users, traffic requirements and congestion management.” Mr Pegg said he found it "unbelievable" the council overrode the expert advice and then publicly said they had advice supporting the decision. Resident backlash and the council’s backtrack The road closure prompted a petition, supported by Mr Pegg and signed by more than 1200 people, to stop it. Illaweena Street petitioners Nycoll Szombathy, Louise Nann and Donna Longworth with Duncan Pegg.