Page 2801 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 13 August 2019
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Our government will continue to build better infrastructure, and the better suburbs statement will continue to guide us in progressively transitioning investment in city services to the Canberra community’s highest priority areas.
We have committed $3 million in the budget to continue to implement the play space improvement program in 2019-20. These investments in new and upgraded playgrounds that our government is undertaking will provide improved and new play activities, more diverse ranges of experiences for children and particularly fun, creative and engaging play experiences and those in natural settings.
Amenity upgrades and refresh works will be undertaken at a number of existing play spaces, including seating, shade infrastructure and new pieces of equipment. The new nature play spaces will be delivered to enhance existing play facilities at Yerrabi Pond in Gungahlin and Kambah adventure playground. Natural play spaces provide an outlet for creative and imaginative play, using elements from the landscape—natural elements like logs and rocks—to encourage children to climb, jump and explore. Every region in Canberra will benefit from a new playground.
Additional bins will be installed right across Canberra in highly trafficked areas like group centres to meet the demand of users in our open public spaces and nearby residences. These include highly frequented areas for people walking their dogs and recreational areas like Haig Park, the Watson walking track, Gungahlin Ponds and our popular dog parks. We have also committed to providing 100 additional recycling bins throughout the ACT. These bins will be placed at local and town shopping centres, and I look forward to working with communities to make sure that the best locations are provided for these.
We will continue to improve services at our local shops more broadly. We have committed to deliver up to 25 new permanent parking spaces at the busy Palmerston shops and a further 150 parking spaces at Cooleman Court in Weston Creek to cater for demand there. The parking will help to improve access to the shopping centre as well as other services at the Weston Creek group centre such as the new nurse-led walk-in centre which is going to be open by the end of the year. These upgrades at Cooleman Court will continue the works recently completed on Parkinson Street and provide additional parking capacity for the general public and also potentially for park-and-ride users, pending the outcome of a review of parking at the centre.
We will also undertake amenity upgrades at Dunlop and Fraser shops, with improvements to landscaping and footpaths. Dunlop shops in particular will benefit from a new community noticeboard and a shade sail at the playground.
We are also commencing through the budget something that was brought home to the government particularly through the better suburbs process, and that is the importance of planting more trees. The budget will provide funding for the largest tree planting by the government since the year 2000, with 17,000 new trees being planted across the city to ensure the benefits of Canberra’s renowned urban forest continue for future generations. Planting locations will particularly target gaps in the existing tree canopy cover in areas that are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change as well as
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