Page 4985 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 26 October 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
places. Then, as I have already said, the usual development application and planning processes have to be gone through. This takes quite some time. I am genuinely concerned that by stopping the sale of this land we will create delays to establishing much-needed aged-care places.
I understand there is also a site for auction at Isabella Plains. The fact that there are two sites for auction in this area of Tuggeranong indicates that there is a growing need for residential aged-care places, not just in this region of Canberra but in the whole of the ACT. I firmly believe there are other processes available to address the community’s concerns about needing to stop this land sale proceeding.
Additional concerns the community have raised with me are related to site identification. I have already mentioned that a site needs to be identified for a park and ride, as well as for truck and coach parking. I also understand—and Mr Smyth has mentioned this—that there is demand for a site for a second childcare centre. I understand that a dentist approached the owners of the Calwell shopping centre about establishing a dental practice. However, there is just not enough room at the current site. The closest dental surgery is at Chisholm. It is of concern that there are no dentists in the southern part of Tuggeranong to provide this much-needed and absolutely essential service to people.
I understand that the proposal for a pool at Calwell has been going on for quite some time and has been long held up, waiting for resolution of issues such as overshadowing in the church area. I believe it would be appropriate at this stage for the government to undergo a site exploration process to see whether a better site might be found for the pool.
I understand that all these issues cannot be addressed at once and that all the requested items may not be able to be built all at once. But many of the community’s issues can be addressed in a timely way without significant costs, such as creating a taxi zone, improving the lighting and signage in the area and building bus shelters.
A master planning process for the area should be able to take into consideration some of the more significant issues that the community has identified. I note that the government’s new draft planning strategy clearly addresses the need for additional master plans, and Calwell is an area which certainly seems to warrant one. I know that the government has a priority list and a process for establishing whether the area is in high need. Changing circumstances is one of the criteria, from what I understand, and this area seems to fit into this category.
The establishment of an aged-care facility in the area certainly raises the need for examination of the adequacy of community access paths, pedestrian crossings and other aged-care needs, and this can be incorporated in the master planning process. As I said, I think it is important to acknowledge that the government has established the process of master plans in the ACT. We know that there are many areas in the ACT that are requesting master plans and need them. I think that needs to be built into the process.
The area subject to master planning needs to not just take into account the shopping centre but also the networks and travel patterns of people moving between the schools,
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video