Gungahlin news

Government

This was my personal submission on the ACT Electoral Boundary Redistribution:

As a Gungahlin resident I would like to express my concern that the current electoral distribution disadvantages the Gungahlin community in an unnecessary and unfair way. The Gungahlin community is a “community of common interests” just the same as Belconnen, Weston Creek, Tuggeranong and other clearly identified communities. There is a need to identify communities of common interests as one of the main factors in establishing ACT electoral boundaries.

Read more: Electoral Boundaries

Planning & development

The February PDF meeting covered a range of topics - mainly the upcoming Territory Plan changes and affordable housing.

Read more: Planning & Development Forum 5 Feb 2007

Planning & development

 

ACTPLA met with representatives of all the Canberra Community Councils on 27/2/07 to discuss how they are going with their consultation processes. That they take such measures is a very good sign, and follows on from what I have found to be - while I've been with the GCC - a responsive and proactive approach to engaging with the community that they serve. Some other areas of the ACT Government could learn from ACTPLA's example...

Read more: ACTPLA/Community Councils meeting about consultation

Planning & development

Prior to Christmas the GCC was involved in a preliminary round of community and industry consultation about the draft Territory Plan. There were four or five workshops where specific issues on the structure and content were worked through, plus dummy runs conducted on the draft against test case DAs.

Read more: Territory Plan Focus Groups

Transport

A resident contacted us concerned he had almost been hit at the newer Hibberson Street crossing outside Aldi - not once but twice, within a couple of days. The zebra crossings are pretty well camoflagued! The two-toned exposed aggregate they've used does look nice, but using a zebra crossing should not be a life-and-death adventure for the sake of good looks...

There is a bigger problem here though - the funnelling of "through traffic" from Flemington Road directly into the town centre.

Read more: Traffic trouble in Town Centre

Environment

Creating tradeable water allocations for urban communities has been promoted as an alternative to water restrictions. The idea has theoretical merit but it would be difficult for urban household users to accept and operate. It is unlikely to lead to investment in water infrastructure because it does not solve the underlying problem of a single natural monopoly urban water supplier. It will solve the problem of urban water restrictions by rationing on price and it may be appropriate for large commercial users and irrigators who have genuine alternatives and a commercial reason for using water but for most urban water users water is a relatively low expenditure and for most uses it is price inelastic.

Read more: Save not Trade (a water solution)

Territory Services

Recently GCC Treasurer Barry Dee wrote to Roads ACT about the need for a pedestrian crossing between the Gungahlin Library and the corner outside the Centrelink office. We've received a reply from Roads ACT that says basically that they don't think it is warranted.

Read more: Library Crossing

Airport

Attended my first Airport Noise Meeting 8 Feb 2007.

The meeting seemed fairly heavily weighted towards industry and airport people, with community representatives maybe a third of those there, and just seven of the invitees versus 32 airport industry and government people...

Read more: Airport Noise Community Consultative Forum

Planning & development

In November 2006, ACTPLA gave public notice of a development application lodged by the Land Development Authority.

The development is to do landscaping works worth $2.5M in the linear strip between "The G" and the Big W buildings and to demolish the existing playground and redo all the works in that strip right down to the Community Centre and library.

Read more: Gungahlin to get new park

Planning & development

In November, ACTPLA gave public notice of a development application lodged by the Land Development Authority - the ACT Government's semi-commercialised development business unit charged with developing, among other areas, most of Gungahlin.

However, the public notice was the first the Gungahlin Community Council had heard of the intended development, despite having recently attempted to engage with the LDA over upcoming development in the area, and a long history of lobbying for a purpose-built "town square" in this location.

Read more: Gungahlin Town Centre Linear Park DA

Transport

The Canberra Sunday Times called me about traffic hotspots, as they were doing a large spread on the topic.

I was happy to volunteer our own Flemington Road as a place where they were guaranteed to get a "good" photo - regularly backed up to Mitchell in the morning, and sometimes as far as the top end of Mitchell.

In the article I put forward the idea that the bus lane should be converted to a transit lane, so at least those with extra people in the car could bypass the traffic jam.

Read more: Get used to Canberra crawl

Transport

The first stage of the GDE is open. Without making any comment on the debate that went into its location, it is good to see the road open.

However it is concerning that the government seems to be hanging everything on the GDE. They are refusing to even look at what is happening at other problem spots like the Gundaroo Drive - Barton Highway roundabout until after the full GDE is open. This means that any solutions will be at least 6-10 years off, and likely more lives will be claimed. 

Planning & development

This article in the Chronicle came from my first interview as GCC President.

I made it clear that planning was the key area on which I would be focusing my efforts.

Community & business

Every couple of months, representatives of ACT's five Community Councils meet with the ACT Government as a group that is called the ACT Community Councils Forum. This is my report for the November 2006 meeting covering the last two months activities of the GCC.

Read more: Community Councils Forum November