The Queensland Government has taken aim at Redland Shire Council’s draft Local Growth Management Strategy, which suggests 2000 new homes could be built on the islands in the next 20 years to help meet demand for housing across South East Queensland.

Real estate agents have reported strong buyer interest in property on the Bay Islands and there have been calls for a bridge to be built to the islands as the population continues to rise.

But Mr Lucas, the Planning and Infrastructure Minister, said excessive growth on the islands could harm the environment and attract a massive bill for ratepayers and taxpayers.

“Significant growth in population on the Bay Islands puts amazing pressure on the council and State Government for further infrastructure (such as roads, sewerage, transport),” he told the Bayside Bulletin in a wide-ranging interview.

“That becomes much more expensive to deliver than it does in mainland communities.”

More than 4200 people called Macleay, Russell, Lamb and Karragarra islands home when the latest Census was undertaken in 2006 but many roads remain unsealed and no sewerage system has been built.

The islands were subdivided by the State Government and handed over to Redland Shire Council in the 1970s.

Island growth has been subject to negotiations between the Government and the council as part of the council’s latest growth plan, which foreshadows an extra 4200 island residents by 2026.

Mr Lucas, who was in Cleveland last week for the launch of a new think-tank called the Redlands Institute, refused to say what level of growth would be suitable on the islands.

Council chief executive officer Susan Rankin said the council had used State Government growth projections to 2026 for the Bay Islands in its planning.

“Accordingly, we would be surprised if the State Government is concerned regarding those predictions since they have not seen fit to review or revise them,” she said.