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The committee was concerned in the initial instance that perhaps the lease, which was reissued in 1987, would attract up to a 100 per cent betterment rate. A concern since this report was released is that the lease may not be levied at 50 per cent; rather, the remission would be 20 per cent. That is an issue that I have raised with Mr Humphries and with the Lease Administration Branch. It is a matter that is being considered at this moment. Indeed, Mr Humphries informs me that a legal opinion is being sought from the Law Office. We are waiting to see what the Law Office comes up with on that issue. If the lease is a concessional lease and it is at 20 per cent, then we are talking about additional income for the Territory of probably $1.3m, or certainly a figure of that order. It is of concern generally to the committee that such issues be dealt with particularly carefully. There is no business in this city that would ever deal with such sums of money without double checking and triple checking them to ensure that they were accurate. It will be of great concern to the committee to ensure that we fulfil our role in double checking that such sums of money are dealt with appropriately.

I go to the critical factor - the variation to the Territory Plan. It operates separately, in one sense, from the variation to the lease. In that sense, the committee determined that it was appropriate to endorse the draft variation to the golf course, subject to a series of conditions. The first one is that the area not be a gated community; that access to the golf club be available from North Lyneham and by other members of the community. It was the committee's opinion that that ought to be stipulated in the lease conditions and the agreement that the Government has with the golf club.

In relation to traffic matters, which were also matters of great concern, we felt that it was appropriate that the Government ensure, as the consultants who had been employed by the developers recommended, access and egress from Ellenborough Street. The committee also felt that the broader traffic considerations should be taken into account. It is high time that the traffic problems at the end of Ginninderra Drive, as it goes into Mouat Street, and for traffic coming out of Kaleen and Giralang were addressed. The committee felt that it was best that the problems be addressed by providing access onto the Barton Highway for the Kaleen and Giralang travellers and that the travellers down Ginninderra Drive have access into an upgraded Mouat Street. That also requires traffic work to allow people from Lyneham access to Mouat Street as well. Those issues, we believe, are appropriate to be dealt with in the 1995-96 capital works program.

The other issue is the entrance into Ellenborough Street. The recommendation was to install traffic lights, that being the responsibility of the developer. The committee did note, however, that, if the traffic situation were dealt with appropriately at both Mouat Street and the Barton Highway, the need for that set of traffic lights may lessen and fall to a lower priority. There are a couple of issues in terms of the way that papers were presented. It is more about the relationship that the committee has with the department than anything else. We hope that the papers that we get will be easier to read and will be set out in a more reasonable way.


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