Page 1076 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 3 May 2022
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The ACT government is pleased to be working collaboratively with the Ministerial Advisory Council on Ageing to identify opportunities to support and promote regional community hubs, with a particular focus on the social inclusion and participation of older Canberrans. Options to undertake targeted promotion of the Nature Prescriptions Program are currently being actively explored.
The fourth and final focus area of the plan, A City for all Ages, centres on our city’s infrastructure, such as transport, pathways and open spaces, and enabling older Canberrans to be active and involved. This also considers access to appropriate and affordable housing for older Canberrans. Within this focus area, older residents in Reid, Scullin, O’Connor and Chifley, and their visitors, will benefit from over $2 million in age-friendly suburb upgrades over the next four years. Upgrades are informed by the input of older residents and support their activity and connectivity.
An innovative Street Forestry Program pilot tested how best to engage with residents to increase the uptake of street trees in low tree canopy areas and at locations vulnerable to urban heat. Given that older people are particularly at risk of heat stress, the urban forest and vegetation volume are critical to improving older people’s comfort, social experience and participation.
Public transport familiarisation days are also opening up the world for older people in our community.
Accessible housing remains a priority under the ACT Housing Strategy Growing and Renewing Public Housing Program. At least 1,000 existing public housing properties will be renewed and at least 260 new dwellings added. As far as practical and where site conditions permit, all new properties are designed and constructed to AS 4299’s class C adaptable standard or Livable Housing Australia’s gold level.
In addition, the Ningulangu—meaning “belonging to home and place”—housing initiative will provide five two-bedroom units for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander older persons in Dickson. This is the third development targeting this group. The online seniors card form introduced in 2020 has enhanced access to this initiative, with a total of 15,512 applications received since inception and a total of 7,245 new card holders in 2021.
The ACT government is committed to the need to scope on-demand and flexible bus services for Canberrans. I would just like to note that this is point 21.3 in appendix 4 of the parliamentary and governing agreement: “Scope on-demand and flexibus services to make it easier for people with mobility issues”. Flexible or non-fixed route services, including last mile, flexible and on-demand services, are critical to deliver a transport system that provides for the access and mobility needs of all Canberrans and are essential to complementing the connected service design of a modern public transport network.
Transport Canberra currently provides a popular flexible transport service using the special needs transport bus fleet’s spare capacity during the non-peak service hours in the middle of the day. We know how much Canberrans value the accessibility that this
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