DESPITE appearing to make a small amount of progress during last month's meeting the Southern Downs Regional Council are once again going back to the drawing board with the parks rationalisation project.

The council were presented with a list of 31 parks, which the council approved in February, and were asked to approve the sale or lease of the park space.

Despite numerous workshops on the parks rationalisation process the council realised they had issues with a number of parks in the list.

What ensued was a lengthy debate during yesterday's general council meeting.

Cr Neil Meiklejohn was disappointed that the process was once again being delayed.

"I wish I didn't see complications in nearly all of these," he said.

The biggest issue being that many of the parks are used as drainage reserves.

Director of engineering services Peter See said on top of these considerations a number of the parks were in flood-prone areas and one was a major fishing area in Warwick.

Mr See said he was concerned that the original intention of the parks rationalisation project had been lost.

"We started this as a way of determining the level of service we provide to the parks not how to get rid of the park space," he said.

Council chief executive officer Andrew Roach suggested that the councillors defer making a decision for another month.

"Given the debate today I suggest we defer the matter so I can re-think the way this is presented to you," he said.

However one park no longer on the park rationalisation list is the Allora Memorial Park.

The move was a result of Cr Glyn Rees submitting a notice of motion seeking to have the park removed from the list, after a fair amount of community outcry.

"I understand it is an expense to council to continue to maintain the park space but the community look to council to maintain these special areas of remembrance," he said.

Councillor Vic Pennisi was not a fan of the suggestion saying he would rather investigate other ways of having the park space maintained that would save the council money.

However Cr Pennisi, Cr Denise Ingram and Deputy Mayor Ross Bartley's votes against the decision were not enough to stop it going ahead.