Page 3200 - Week 08 - Thursday, 16 August 2018
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Education
In July 2017 the Education Directorate entered into a social enterprise licence agreement with Marymead allowing them to establish a garden/urban farm and office accommodation on the grounds at HBCTL. No fee has been charged for occupying the space except for utilities costs.
(4)
ACTPG
Impediments are described in the response to Question 3.
EPSDD
Current Hub membership options allow access by members on the weekends and after hours.
Major impediments for other EPSDD buildings are related to security, and managing access and movements:
(i) security: the design and associated security systems for our existing buildings do not enable access to be limited within a building, this would allow general access for the public and community groups across the whole building, with attendant security issues. Addressing this issue would involve additional costs; and
(ii) arranging and managing after-hours access: additional costs would also be involved in providing after-hours access to secure premises, managing and updating after-hours access, and providing assistance if our employees are required to be on-site to escort and assist external users.
During heatwaves there are trigger arrangements for the ACT Extreme Heat Plan, the criteria of a mean temperature of 28oC using the BOM forecasts. An impediment may include that these triggers may not be identified in time to respond, that the trigger is not adequately communicated throughout ACT Government or that the building operators may not be in a position to respond to requests to open the building as a heat oasis. There may also be issues communicating this with the public and providing information on what the heat oasis offers as well as impediments for vulnerable people in particular to actually get to the defined heat oasis. This could all be rectified by having heat oases identified as well as policies, procedures and communication messages in place.
Currently in the ACT, when the criteria to activate the Extreme Heat Plan is met, the Chief Officer of the Ambulance Service is to advise the Chief Health Officer that the Plan would be enacted and commence actions to deal with the forecast heatwave, currently this does not include the provision of ACT Government buildings outside regular operating hours, or during operating hours beyond the current policy context.
Whilst the ACT Government already has a number of publications and information on how to stay cool during heatwaves and general heat refuges (e.g. community centres, shopping centres, libraries, public galleries or cinemas) there is no clear directive on the use of ACT Government facilities such as libraries, offices or community facilities and making them available to the public during heatwaves to be used as a heat oasis. The directorates responsible for this educational material regularly promote this information at the beginning of summer, when heatwaves are imminent, and during heatwaves.
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