Page 4977 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 26 October 2011
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Is it any wonder, Mr Speaker, that at this time the local community of Calwell is upset with these decisions? There have been a number of letters written to various people. For instance, Mr Nick Tsoulias has written to Mr Corbell and cc-ed a copy to me. He outlines the reason in a three-page letter. I will just quote some of it.
Dear Simon,
Residents and local business owners have contacted me recently seeking a delay of the upcoming option of the Calwell Aged Care Facility, Block 5, Section 790—which is to be auctioned on November 22nd this year.
In recent community meetings organised by local South East Tuggeranong residents group on 15th October 2009 and the local Neighbourhood Watch groups in November 2010, a good cross representation of the business community and local residents spoke out in favour of an idea for a masterplan for the Calwell Shops / and shoppers precinct area too, which we believe would solve any increases of current level of more traffic and current congestion to the only accessible street for all sites—Were Street.
The community response supports a masterplan study to be undertaken that would focus on the precinct between Johnson Drive, from Ashley Drive junction to the Monaro Highway Junction, Tharwa Drive to Were Street and Webber Crescent, and either side of these roads and its open land.
Whilst we understand the government has a new draft residential policy for the ACT, the Johnson Drive corridor would benefit from this policy, if consideration were given to a proper plan for the area.
Unfortunately, poor planning in the 1980’s and 1990’s for Calwell has seen a number of land sales in the area be released without any study on the broader radius of up to .5 / 1km, which includes child care, churches, community centres, local Club, and a swimming pool site. These sites currently are using existing car Calwell Shops parking which was good for 20 years ago, but circumstances have changed, and their capacity to fulfil their needs is limited, as these too are growing also.
I will not read the rest of it. I will refer to it later. What there is, again, is a plan to sell a block of land without considering the broader context. I know the case can be made that we need aged accommodation in Tuggeranong. Yes, we do. But what we need to do is get it right. I do not know if either of the ministers have been down to Calwell shops on any night of the week or on the weekend. It is a very busy shopping centre as it is. We all will accept that we inherit planning from the past—from the 1970s and the 1980s before self-government—but there is an opportunity to get it right here and there is, I think, an obligation to make sure that we do get it right.
How can we as a community get the ACT government to understand that there is a proper hierarchy to planning matters? This is one of the other frustrations that is coming from the community. First, there should come the strategy—in this case, the master plan. Then comes the high-level planning decision and then comes the more detailed planning decisions. This is simply what the community is asking for. Having spoken to a number of community leaders down there, whether they be business
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