By Kayla Brereton and Amy Kelly

A Brisbane City Councillor has raised concerns that the council’s plans to relax height restrictions on houses in flood-affected areas could make future floods worse for neighbours.

Councillor Helen Abrahams opposed the idea, saying the use of landfill to raise houses will create more flooding for surrounding properties.

“It is inappropriate to let people use fill to raise their buildings up,” she said.

“All that means is that someone upstream has a higher level of flooding.”

Cliff Button, a professor in civil engineering at the Queensland University of Technology, said without proper planning filling across a flood plain would shift the path of the water and could even make it flow faster.

“Unless it’s done with appropriate forethought of where the water is coming from and where it’s going to you can compound the problem,” he said.

“If it’s done willy-nilly in an uncoordinated way, it certainly will shift the problem to the neighbouring areas.”

However Councillor Amanda Cooper, chair of Council Neighbourhood Planning, said not everyone will use landfill to raise their homes.

“There may be an option for people to use some fill but it’s very unlikely that people will do that,” she said.

“Preference has been for people to raise stumps and improve their flood immunity.”