Page 3565 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 18 August 2010
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
intention of carrying through with the plans. So the government is being disingenuous about its commitment to planning a better Canberra where planning is more sustainable and less congested.
I found it particularly ironic that the London Circuit work went ahead through May and June. This, of course, is the very period that the government said it would finish consulting and release its final greater Civic plan. According to the draft, the final plan was due for endorsement in June, but we still have not seen it. In addition to the fact that millions of dollars were spent rebuilding London Circuit in basically the same design, it makes me wonder whether the government has any intention of making any transport improvements to London Circuit at all.
Yesterday I asked Mr Stanhope to tell us his position on the Civic cycle loop. He said he would defer giving us his position until he saw where the government was up to on the greater Civic action plan. A good idea! This is exactly what should have been done before London Circuit’s roads and gutters were torn up at a cost of $5 million. I would like to suggest a new catchphrase for the government to commit to memory. Like the ActewAGL mole which says “dial before you dig”, the government should “plan before you pour”.
Unfortunately, London Circuit is not the only example of roadworks and rehabilitation pointing to a lack of long-term thinking by the government. Any commuter from north Canberra will know that recently Northbourne Avenue underwent major roadworks. The road surface was re-done. The kerbs were re-done. The works caused significant disruption to traffic over a number of months. The work proceeded into the night and this generated noise complaints from nearby residents who discovered to their dismay that roadworks are in fact exempt from noise regulations. The cost of this work, in conjunction with the London Circuit work, was approximately $8 million.
It is surprising, then, that the recent budget allocated $4 million specifically to redesigning Northbourne Avenue in order “to identify the best priority bus and cycle path options”. These sorts of options that we have been discussing—like making the on-road cycle road into a separated cycle lane or adding a bus priority lane—are likely to mean widening the verges or making other changes which will make the work that has just been done on Northbourne Avenue redundant. Spending millions of dollars today on cementing in the existing Northbourne Avenue design—literally cementing—is a strange action for a government that says it wants to redesign Northbourne Avenue to make it more sustainable.
The list goes on. Unfortunately, Bunda Street is undergoing a major refurbishment right now. As Mr Stanhope said yesterday, these works come at a significant cost—$5 million, he said. Government consultants talked to the public about the redevelopment of Bunda Street early last year. I attended one of the consultations. Many good options were put forward to redevelop this key area in a sustainable way. I put in a submission along similar lines. In addition, the 2010 consultants’ report on the ACT cycling and pedestrian network ranked changes to Bunda street as the two highest priority infrastructure projects. These projects were to convert Bunda Street into shared space and to add protected cycle paths to Bunda Street.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video