Page 4020 - Week 13 - Thursday, 2 December 2021
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f. the Plan will be implemented through a range of approaches including a Territory Plan Variation and Development Applications which include further consultation.
The ACT Government will continue to implement the Plan. The ACT Legislative Assembly will have the opportunity to consider the relevant Territory Plan Variations when these are presented as part of the process involved to vary the Territory Plan.
I thank you for referring the petitions for my consideration and I trust this information clarifies the ACT Government position in relation to the Integrated Plan for Red Hill Nature Reserve and Surrounds.
Motion to take note of petitions
MADAM SPEAKER: Pursuant to standing order 98A, I propose the question:
That the petitions and response so lodged be noted.
Belconnen—cricket facilities—petition 46-21
MS CLAY (Ginninderra) (10.04): I rise today to speak to a petition by dedicated volunteers from a sporting community in Belconnen, the Western District Cricket Club. I would like to thank Bryce and Ryan for showing me around their club. It was fantastic to see how many young people were out on a rainy day to play cricket. It was lovely to see so many families from different schools, different areas and different parts of the community coming together to watch their kids and meet one another.
I was extremely impressed with the very young ones, four and five years old, all in their uniforms and all playing in the drizzle. Belconnen is a heavily populated area, with almost 100,000 residents. We have a lot of people participating in community sport and it is really encouraging, but our facilities are in need of improvement.
We need to foster all of that positive energy and community spirit in everything we do. It is so important for social cohesion. I think during COVID we have all realised how important that social cohesion is and how important it is that we learn to rely on one another and talk to one another. The ACT government has a major part in facilitating this.
We understand the pressures on the budget. I am pleased that we have made some great choices with our budget, but the community is asking for some modest and reasonable upgrades here. The petition points out that there is extremely limited cricket infrastructure in eastern Belconnen to support the largest community cricket club in the ACT. The ACT government has only provided two artificial surface community-use cricket nets across 10 suburbs in Belconnen.
The enclosed locked nets at Kaleen are insufficient for the training needs of the 30 teams in West’s junior and senior clubs. That was really obvious when I visited and saw how many people were out. The enclosed nets in Aranda have been deemed unsafe by Cricket ACT, but the repairs have not yet gone ahead. Some stopgap
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