Page 3891 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 25 August 2010
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retail, commercial and community precinct. In much the same way, there are similar issues with Kambah Village. Hence, such a review as this could enable a comprehensive look at the hierarchy of centres in the Tuggeranong Valley and indeed would fit in with the master planning exercises that are currently underway for Tuggeranong and for Erindale.
I will mention a few complaints about the Kambah Village that particularly some of the residents and some of the shop owners and managers have. And a lot of it concerns maintenance issues. They are particularly concerned with the status of the paving and reports have been made to me of particularly older shoppers who have taken a tumble. Some of the finish to the street furniture has deteriorated and has not been replaced. There is considerable concern with the drains, in particular when it rains. And one of the shop owners reported to me that she has to go out and unplug drains and downpipes when it rains because of the way that the system works.
With these issues at one angle and with the concerns that have been raised by residents who do not like some of the effects of, for instance, the ironbarks that are there and that tend to give off a lot of sap, which makes the place look untidy and which does affect the quality of the buildings and some of the street furniture as well, it is not just opportunism to say there should be a master plan here. I think there is a clear case that can be made and has been made that this is the ideal time to undertake it.
When I visited with Giulia Jones, I received a number of complaints about this. It is not about things like paving, it is about the size of the supermarket, the nature of the trees and the sap that they drop, and the effect on the street furniture. It is then important to tie all that together and come up with a master plan that addresses all of these issues.
It is also important to make a brief comment about the location of the Tuggeranong town centre and the effect that it actually has had on places like Kambah. The town centre was actually planned to be in the centre of Tuggeranong and, when the plans for this, then new, city were discussed with the first Legislative Assembly, substantial disquiet was expressed about two matters: first, having a significant residential development on the west bank of the Murrumbidgee River and, secondly, therefore, having five major bridges across the river to connect the western and the eastern areas of the new town centre at Tuggeranong.
Ultimately, the proposed developments on the west bank were abandoned. By this time, however, the initial development of the town centre was underway. Indeed, some of the longer term residents—and I am sure Mr Hargreaves will remember—will remember the telephone exchange that sat all alone beside the road to Pine Island for so many years. And it took about two decades for the city to catch up to the infrastructure.
Consequently, today we have the major town centre not in the centre of the city but on the edge of the city and we have a much smaller satellite city that was originally planned. And of course this all has an effect on the operation of retail outlets in the valley.
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