Page 2262 - Week 07 - Thursday, 23 June 2005
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An upgrade of the public areas at the Holt shopping centre—so dear to your heart, Mr Speaker—has recently been completed. The aim of these works is to make the shops fully accessible from the public space, to address concerns about public safety and to create awareness of the shops from the adjacent arterial road—Beaurepaire Crescent. The public areas are now appropriately lit. New signage, access ramps and public artwork all help to create a more functional and lively public space.
An important water sensitive urban design initiative has been implemented within the car park and adjacent pedestrian areas at the Holt shopping centre. Stormwater run-off is being captured via water permeable paving units in the car park. The paving allows rapid water penetration into the underlying soil to promote growth in trees. Boral Industries has partnered with the ACT government to implement this demonstration of water sensitive urban design.
Considerable work has also been undertaken on the western edge of the city to restore the fire-damaged landscape. This is a significant achievement, given the extremely dry weather conditions. During 2003-04 the ACT government consulted with the community and replaced approximately 8,000 fire-affected plants, including 1,600 trees. This has restored most of the parklands and major road verges in Weston Creek, Woden and Tuggeranong. Restoration of fire-damaged suburban public landscapes is nearing completion, with the majority of pedestrian open space, road verges and parklands already restored. A few laneways and open spaces still affected by ongoing building have been deferred until the majority of building disturbance is complete.
Approximately 900 new street trees have been planted on residential verges to restore the amenity and coherence of fire-affected residential streets. Replanting and regrassing of major fire-affected road corridors, such as Kambah Pool Road, Tuggeranong Parkway and Monaro Highway is in progress. This work is due for completion during the winter of 2005. All fire-affected suburbs have had municipal assets replaced including playgrounds, street signs, regulatory and warning signs, guardrails, guideposts, log barriers and bollards, bridges and line marking.
Land management agencies have also been working together to reduce the occurrence and impact of future bushfires by carrying out extensive fuel hazard reduction programs across the ACT over the past 12 months. The hazard reduction work has been conducted in identified priority areas and has involved techniques such as controlled burning, slashing or mowing, physical removal and grazing, in order to help reduce fire intensity and provide better opportunities to contain fire. Not only have these works reduced the fire hazard but they have also improved the appearance of these areas.
The restoration of the Yarralumla Creek commenced this year with the removal of pest willows and poplars and the revegetation of the creek using 14,200 native plants. An ongoing weed control program was undertaken throughout urban areas in spring and summer, targeting environmental weeds such as St John’s wort, Paterson’s curse, African love grass, blackberry and woody weeds. As I said from the outset, the Stanhope government is keenly aware of the condition of Canberra and will continue to implement a range of strategies to enhance the urban environment from both the social and environmental perspectives.
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