Page 1343 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 25 March 2009
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people who are going to be parked in the vicinity of the shops all day. This, of course, includes shopkeepers and people who are maybe having a longer appointment at the hairdresser or eating in the restaurant. This further proposal was drawn up by the department in August 2008 and was put on display in the front window of the local IGA for several months.
I continued my mobile offices at Nicholls shops over the subsequent period, directly beside the shop window where the plans for the proposed changes were displayed. I was approached by a number of residents and shopkeepers in their support of the plans. Very few residents—only one to the best of my memory, possibly two—approached me over the number of months to tell me they were unhappy with the proposal. So as I said, the majority of people that approached me at my mobile offices or by email or phone to my office at the time were in favour of and in support of the plans.
However, there were, as I said, some people who were not. This is a short snapshot of the consultation that the ACT government and I have conducted. I consider, Mr Coe, that this is not a sham. However, the concerns I have just mentioned were of note and mainly in regard to the one-way traffic arrangements proposed. I, of course, relayed these concerns to Roads ACT through the minister’s office. I also suggested to those people with these concerns that they could contact Roads ACT directly if they wished and I gave them that information.
At the same time, letters were delivered on behalf of the government to 80 local residents in the vicinity of the shops asking for their comment and feedback on the proposal. Of course, this included the street in which the question of the one-way traffic has been proposed. The people in that particular street were given a letterbox drop about the proposal. Of course, the map was just around the corner on the IGA shop window. I also did a letterbox drop in the area around the Nicholls shops about this issue in the last term.
Perhaps Mr Coe’s parents thought that it was part of Labor Party propaganda and may not have realised that it was their member keeping them informed. Perhaps they do not discuss such issues with their son. But if they had discussed the letter with him, Mr Coe would have been well aware that this issue had been discussed by me with the government for quite some time.
More recently, the department conducted a second letterbox drop at the time when consultation was coming to a close. Again, the general response was positive but a number of objections were raised by some residents. I understand that these concerns again revolved around the one-way traffic. In fact, one of these people that raised this issue with me was the one that raised it at my mobile office previously. Indeed, I have had representations made to me by one resident, as I said, at my mobile office and two others by email.
The road engineers are seeking a viable solution to the issue as a result of the objections raised by some constituents and the ACT government has postponed the work on the car park upgrades. Roads ACT will meet with local residents and traders after Easter at a date to be confirmed, and the only hold-up with that is just arranging
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