Page 1739 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 8 May 2013
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centre, during high-volume periods. But the issue is especially prevalent, for instance, on Sunday mornings when the church holds its main service. The church community and leadership through Pastor Jon Cathie want to have a minimal impact on surrounding traders, hence their suggestion of an additional temporary car park which would help the church but also be good for local shoppers and traders.
These car parking concerns have been expressed on numerous occasions by the church, which has contacted the ACT government in order to attempt to utilise the unleased territory land on block 48, section 132, which is adjacent to its building in the Erindale centre and currently marked as urban open space.
The church have expressed interest in either having the land released to them for purchase or to be utilised on a lease basis in order to alleviate the problems of car parking in the surrounding area. Unfortunately, they have not received a response to their request, aside from a phone call whereby they were told that the land had been allocated for other purposes. After additional inquiries, they were refused any disclosure as to what this allocation actually was.
It is worth noting that in July 2012 during the release of Infrastructure Australia’s fourth review of infrastructure priorities, the Chairman of Infrastructure Australia, Sir Rod Eddington, stated:
Our communities deserve appropriate, well-functioning infrastructure and we need to examine ways to provide these assets at least cost to the community.
It is worth considering that, when we look for simple solutions like this where the government and the community can work together, we can deliver assets to the community which benefit all the community. In this case it would benefit this particular church, but it would also benefit traders, those who use the PCYC and local shoppers.
It is important to note, especially in this instance, that as a result of constructing additional car parking for the community, you grow the quality of life and you contribute to the ability for an organisation such as the Capital Edge Community Church to bring the community together and to grow and expand as more people move into Wanniassa and the surrounding areas. Of course, the Erindale group centre services Wanniassa, but it also services Gowrie, Monash, Fadden and Oxley in particular.
Taking into consideration the Erindale group centre master plan from September 2012, it indicates at several points the issues surrounding car parking in the area. Even in the very beginning of the first stage of the community consultation period, concerns had been expressed as to the existing car parking arrangements in the area. Proposed improvement to the car parking area were continually noted as a key issue throughout the report, and the overall lack of car parking places was included under “weaknesses” in the SWOT analysis.
These concerns were backed up in the SMEC report commissioned into traffic analysis in the area. The final report of the Erindale traffic plan notes that an increase
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