News - Government

UPDATE 31 May 2007

Minister Hargreaves has finally replied to our follow-up enquiries. the answers are basically no on all counts. Quality community engagement from the 'Minister for Tuggeranong'...You can read his responses here.

What do you think? You can leave your thoughts here and we'll make sure Mr Hargreaves gets to see them!

25 April 2007

There was a great turn-out at our April meeting, with more than 50 people attending. Minister John Hargreaves attended for the full evening despite earlier advice that he would only be able to stay for 30 minutes. Anne Skewes and Gordon Lowe from the LDA also came as promised.

The only person not to show was Planning Minister Simon Corbell...

As was revealed over the next couple of days, there were some other things on his plate that week. But in lead-up media interviews he did commit to revisiting the design of the Gungahlin Town Centre Park, a source of some concern to us due to lack of consultation by the LDA.

It turned out to be a tense meeting, at times heated. But it served to make it clear to the government that there is a deeply felt resentment among many Gungahlin residents about the way the planning has been going in our area, and that people feel that after 15 years, we've waited long after for oft-promised infrastructure.

We also managed to make it very clear that we want to see action on the jobs front. Gungahlin is nowhere near the design employment base of 23,000 jobs, and I believe we will now see some acceleration of efforts in this area.

Following is my email to Minister Hargreaves following up on a number of the issues raised during and after the meeting that fall into his portfolio. We await his response.

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From: Alan Kerlin
Sent: Wednesday, 25 April 2007 9:13 PM
To: Hargreaves John
Subject: Gungahlin Meeting and follow-up issues

Dear Minister

I wish to pass on our thanks for your attendance at our April meeting.

I have received a lot of feedback and emails from residents who attended, including a number of comments expressing appreciation for your attendance and recognition that you did as well as could be expected to answer questions that were from other portfolios. In inviting both yourself and the Minister for Planning to the same meeting, we had hoped to avoid that, but it was not to be.

As per your suggestions, we have a number of follow-up meetings to arrange with other ministers, as well as follow-up on issues raised with your but not able to be resolved on the night. We also have a number of additional questions from the audience to pass on to the responsible people.

We will get through these as our voluntary time allows.

To some of these issues:

1/ On the night we discussed the issue of the bus lane on Flemington Road and requested you consider it being changed to a T2 transit lane, to which you agreed. We recognise that your commitment that "it will be by Monday" was probably not achievable if signage and traffic light symbols have to be ordered and works scheduled. However we would appreciate your advice as to when the change will be effected? Perhaps when it is done, you would like to arrange a joint photo opportunity with the Chronicle?

2/ At a recent meeting with ACTPLA, Jacqui Lavis said she'd arrange a briefing with ACTPLA's traffic designers to bring us up to date on designs for upgrading Flemington Road for service lanes, public transport, park and rides, and suburban access. As the portfolio shuffle means this team is probably shifting to your department, do we need to transfer this request to ACT Roads?

3/ You asked me to send you details of the problem with the Phillip Avenue - Majura Avenue intersection. Attached is a section cut out of the presentation that shows the problem that causes rat-running through Watson and Hackett, only worsening the problem at the intersection. Although this is in North Canberra, it is a problem that affects a great many Gungahlin residents who justifiably use Majura and Limestone Avenues to bypass the city centre on their way to South Canberra and Russell. However we can spend 10 minutes getting through this single intersection, and there a regularly cars backed right through into the Antill/Phillip roundabout, which can't be a safe situation. I have had telephone discussions with three different gents in ACT Roads on a potential solution, each of whom has promised to come back to me but none have. I ask you to consider the solution I suggest in the presentation of a Give Way sign on Phillip Avenue westbound - at least on a temporary basis as a trial. I have discussed this solution with the North Canberra Community Council and they have agreed this would solve the problem. Could you please consider meeting with me on site one morning (about 8.30 but not during school holidays as it is the only time the intersection is tolerable)? You may wish to consider that this could also make a good photo opportunity for you to solve such a long-standing problem that effects so many people.

4/ I have noticed street pavement reseals happening around Hackett using simple spray-pave. As a local government Councillor I found spray-pave leaves a very coarse street surface that is noisy for residents, hazardous for children on bicycles and the like, leads to a lot of loose gravel with associated windscreen chips, and it doesn't last either. About the only thing going for spray-pave is that it is cheap. We've also noticed that the first stage of the GDE was finished in a similar surface, which must create a lot of road noise for adjoining residents in Kaleen. We are concerned that this might be a symptom of the government's budget issues, and if so, we urge you to reconsider as spray-pave is an inappropriate surface for both arterial connections and suburban streets.

5/ How will you determine when the additional lanes for the GDE will be built and what is the likely timing at this stage?

6/ Can you please again request increased vigilance of litter and erosion pollution from building sites, and destruction of parks during construction? Most builders seem to think it is good enough to dump all their waste within a roll of reo mesh, with the result that it all ends up blowing throughout the neighbourhood, down drains and all over nearby farmlands. Attached are pictures of what typically happens on building sites here in Wells Station, and a park that has been trashed, the soil compacted, and the mature tree likely endangered by truck traffic during construction of the houses either side.

7/ Lastly, we frequently come across relatively smaller issues that need to be fixed such as traffic lights that need adjusting or pothole repairs. Could you please advise appropriate contacts that we can use to lodge such requests, and whether you would wish to be kept 'in the loop'?

Thanks again for your assistance. You are always welcome to attend our regular meetings on the second Wednesday monthly except January.

Regards,
Alan Kerlin
President - Gungahlin Community Council

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