Page 1190 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 20 March 2013
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notices in the Woden, Weston and Civic areas. Shopping trolley removal notice stickers are placed on the trolleys and retailers are given 24 hours to collect them before they are impounded. Recent collection days have been held in the areas of Belconnen, Tuggeranong and Gungahlin, with a total of 137 trolleys being impounded across these three sites, meaning that those trolleys are no longer a blight on the landscape. This work has shown real and concrete improvement in the number of trolleys being abandoned and left on the streets, with only seven abandoned trolleys being reported to Canberra Connect from 19 February 2013 to now.
There are many, many examples of where the government is taking active measures to support local shopping centres and improve their management. From August 2012 to February 2013 the government undertook a charity bin pilot program to develop strategies to more effectively manage the illegal dumping of litter around charity bins located throughout Canberra’s local shopping centres. This is an issue on which I have received quite some correspondence in recent times and one I know the community is concerned about.
Four charities were involved in this pilot program—Koomarri, the Smith Family, the Lone Fathers Association and Kidney Health. The pilot program evaluated the effectiveness of a range of measures to manage the dumping of rubbish around charity bins at local shopping centres. These measures included moving charity bins from local shopping centres and relocating them into clusters at larger group centres. The results from the trial show very pleasing results both in terms of reduced dumping at charity bins when they are located at larger centres and a higher proportion of usable material being donated to the charities.
Let me conclude by saying that a considerable amount of work is being done to maintain our shopping centres at the highest possible standard, whether it is the day-to-day maintenance of simply keeping them clean or the ongoing maintenance and upgrade programs that I have spoken about today. Issues, of course, arise. I encourage any member of the chamber, Mrs Jones included, to feel free to contact my office if there is a specific issue. We always have the capability to send a team out if there is a specific issue that has not been noticed. Alternatively, either members of the Assembly or the public can contact Canberra Connect where the same capability is available.
As I have flagged, some of the issues that arise with private owners and private lessees are more difficult and they take time to negotiate through on occasion. But the government is committed to having a positive relationship with those private owners so that we can do our best to keep these locations enjoyable for the Canberra community.
I spoke earlier about the parties at the shops I attended last week and which I know took place in many other places. The community pride in the shopping centres and the sense of community around them was evident at those events, and I think there is a community expectation that they want those hubs to be places where the community can meet each other, where they can feel safe and where they can get their business done. That is certainly the government’s objective with Canberra’s local shopping centres.
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