Page 5089 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 26 October 2011
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In 2008 when the ACT Labor government called for submissions and comments on the Gungahlin town centre planning study, the same issues that I am raising today in this motion were raised by many residents, business owners and other stakeholders. In fact, in the summary of submissions to that study, when it came to traffic and parking on Hibberson Street, we can see that the majority of comments centred on concerns of excessive traffic on Hibberson Street, arguments for diverted traffic arrangements on Hibberson Street, arguments for additional parking spaces in general, arguments for additional undercover parking spaces and an overall general unhappiness with existing parking arrangements.
Now we must remember that this was in 2008, when the population of Gungahlin was around 35,000, nearly 10,000 less than the approximately 45,000 residents who live there at the moment.
The Property Council response to the 2008 study identified issues such as the following:
There is also a need for a plan to resolve the traffic arrangements for the Town Centre.
And:
There is a need for the updated Structure Plan to resolve the future car parking and integrated transport needs for the Town Centre.
On the question of whether through-traffic should be inhibited on Hibberson Street, the Property Council had this to say:
Hibberson Street should be a slow speed, low traffic environment. Ernest Cavanagh, East Street and Flemington Road (within the town centre) should become low speed high traffic to provide access to the car parking that is available. The Valley and Anthony Rolfe Avenues should be higher speed routes to encourage the through traffic to use them.
When it came to the question of parking options, this is how the Property Council responded then:
It should be recognized that the appropriate combination of surface and basement parking will change over time. Areas of surface parking are appropriate while the town centre is being established and the land is available. More than one level of basement parking will not be economic in the short term.
I do not necessarily agree with all those comments of the Property Council, but it certainly is evident that the government have been receiving ideas from many people for a long time. Yet they are simply not taking these ideas on board.
In addition to that, we must remember that all those were in 2008. These issues were well and truly out in the open, with three years for this government to do something, three years to address issues that not only were visible then but were obviously only going to get worse—much, much worse—in the years to come.
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