Page 4776 - Week 16 - Monday, 25 November 1991
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Woden interchange is often cited as the area of most difficulty. I find it pleasing that in the design of the Tuggeranong interchange, and that project has spanned three governments, so it is a project we can all take some pleasure in - - -
Mrs Nolan: It is certainly an improvement on the other two.
MR CONNOLLY: Mrs Nolan says that it is an improvement on the other two, and so it is. The designers of that interchange adopted the approach that has been adopted in some other States, which, interestingly enough, at a national meeting of police Ministers on Friday was endorsed nationally - that is, the goal of crime prevention as the best way to deal with anti-social behaviour, rather than further additions to the criminal law. Crime prevention as a national strategy now has the endorsement of all police Ministers, Liberal and Labor, as the way to go.
The designers of the bus interchange at Tuggeranong, being aware of the problems that occur at Belconnen but particularly at Woden, which is a dark, dank sort of environment with lots of nasty little corners and hiding places where people can lurk and get up to mischief, have designed a bus interchange which is very light and airy. The controller of the interchange sitting in his control booth - the senior ACTION supervisor - has an uninterrupted view of the whole of the interchange and its precincts. We have created at the Tuggeranong interchange a safe and non-threatening environment, not by amending the criminal law, not by providing - - -
Mrs Nolan: What about the snakepit at Woden?
MR CONNOLLY: Mrs Nolan asks, "What about the snakepit at Woden?". She is certainly right in saying that that is an area of some concern. Within a couple of weeks of the change of government I was down there inspecting the Woden interchange area and looking in particular at what is known as the snakepit, which is a wasteland area under the concrete overbridge. It is not possible to see it from the controller's booth or from the shopping centre, and it is not uncommon to find broken bottles or needles or worse. It is a very troublesome little spot because it is so badly designed. From discussions with ACTION it is clear that work is being done on a potential redesign of that area to do away with that spot.
The absurdity is that the so-called snakepit is a wasteland of concrete next to a prime commercial property, and with some intelligent redevelopment what is now a problem for government, a problem for authorities, could be turned into an asset. But you do that, I would suggest, by sensible urban design rather than by necessarily changing the criminal law. Returning to Woden and the impartial finding of this bipartisan committee, they have taken the views of young people, who have said that often youths hang out around shopping centres and interchanges.
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