Page 3035 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 17 November 1992
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Removal of Trees - Palmerston
MRS GRASSBY: My question is to the Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning. Could the Minister provide to the Assembly details of the recent unauthorised removal of trees in Palmerston? What measures have been taken to ensure that there is no repetition of this action?
MR WOOD: Madam Speaker, there was a little publicity some few weeks ago when about 10 quite mature trees were removed from a building site in Palmerston. It was done without approval. They were on the plans as staying there in any development. At the time I registered my strong disapproval of it and the relevant building groups advised their builders that this sort of thing should not occur. Subsequently I have become more concerned because the two builders concerned - there are two lots and two builders - brought back plans seeking to put more units on that land where those trees had been. It was quite clear to me that it was a deliberate act just to try to increase the value of their property by putting more units on it. Obviously they got a very strong answer from the ACT Chief Planner refusing any permission for additional units, and we will be very strict in our requirement that there are replacement trees made available on that site.
I am very keen to register the Government's strong disapproval of such measures. We will never retrospectively or in any way agree to such removal by subsequently allowing extra houses to be put on a site. We value mature trees in the ACT. There are not a great number of them on those residential sites in Gungahlin and we will not allow builders arbitrarily to remove them.
ACTION Services - Palmerston
MR WESTENDE: My question without notice is directed to the Minister for Urban Services, Mr Connolly. The 1991-92 ACT Department of Urban Services annual report states that bus services will be planned during the year to serve the new suburbs in Gungahlin. Would the Minister indicate when the residents of Palmerston can expect a bus service, albeit a skeletal one, when they, like all other households in the ACT, are contributing heavily for the privilege of having ACTION bus services?
MR CONNOLLY: Yes, for quite some time now ACTION has been planning bus services into Gungahlin. The pattern will broadly follow the pattern of Tuggeranong's development, starting off with fairly skeletal services and building as the population builds. At this stage the final route and timetable have not been determined. It is likely that there will be a service operating about every hour through that area of Palmerston which is now rapidly developing. It is anticipated that we might have something up and running over Christmas and through into the New Year period. We are getting fairly close to a service. When that is finalised I will make an appropriate announcement and let Mr Westende's office know.
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