News - Government

Just prior to the 2007-08 ACT Government budget, the Chronicle's Andrew Kazar asked for a 'budget wish list' from the GCC.

The things that Gungahlin needs are many and varied. Here is, as requested, my 'wish list' for just a few of the more urgent priorities for the upcoming ACT Government budget:

• Investment in a major office building in the Gungahlin town centre - with another 3,000 Commonwealth jobs coming to Canberra, the timing is perfect. Just one big building will start things rolling.
• Accelerate the upgrade of the bus fleet to get rid of those incredibly uncomfortable "school buses" that Action patrons have to put up with.
• A new bus service from Gungahlin to the airport and Brindabella Park down Horse Park Drive and Majura Road. Surely this should come BEFORE spending $millions on upgrading Majura Road?
• A bus interchange and park-and-ride at Epic, and an interchange with sheltered waiting areas in the Gungahlin town centre.
• An Infrastructure Delivery Plan for Gungahlin, with clear triggers and milestones.
• Subsidies for grey water and solar hot water installations, plus for people in new suburbs where there is a mandatory minimum rainwater tank size - a subsidy for people who install bigger tanks than the minimum.
• An additional subsidy on top of the Commonwealth subsidy for grid-connected solar electricity panels - instead of spending untold $millions on a gas power station.
• Traffic lights to replace those stupid little roundabouts at the Brand Depot, to give the flow dominance back to Majura Road.
• A free downtown bus shuttle running from Civic to Russell to Barton and back to Civic - two buses going opposite directions throughout the week days.
• The Gold Creek Homestead given over to community management, as originally promised, rather than going under the control of a developer.
• If not light rail, then dedicated bus lanes between the trees down the middle of Northbourne Avenue, as originally intended by Walter Burley Griffin.
• Intersection redesigns to take "through" traffic around the main street (Hibberson) in the Gungahlin Town Centre, leaving the town centre for "destination" traffic and pedestrians.

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