Page 3718 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 23 October 2013
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The spirit and professionalism in which this new information and its application as a critical tool for school improvement has been embraced by ACT schools and teachers are why the ACT will continue to be a national leader in this space.
ACT Emergency Services Agency—stations
MS BERRY: My question is to the Minister for Police and Emergency Services. Minister, can you please outline what the government is doing to enhance emergency services coverage in the ACT?
MR CORBELL: I thank Ms Berry for her question. In November 2011, I released the government’s ESA station upgrade and relocation strategy and its associated implementation plan. The purpose of this strategy and implementation plan was to identify where fire and ambulance, rural fire and state emergency service capabilities needed to be physically located to ensure that we maintained and improved emergency response times across our city. I also announced at that time the commencement of the first community consultation process for phase 1 of the plan, which proposed to develop ESA stations in Charnwood, Aranda, Calwell and Conder.
Since that time the government has been moving ahead with those plans. In 2012-13, the government allocated approximately $21.318 million for the construction of the new west Belconnen co-located ambulance and fire and rescue station in Charnwood and associated project development capability. The new station is now complete and operational. This is a first key step in our commitment to delivering better fire and ambulance facilities for our community and for our hardworking firefighters and ambulance officers.
In the most recent budget the government allocated approximately $17½ million for the construction of a new fire and rescue station in south Tuggeranong as the next step in the rollout of the strategy to improve emergency response times for residents in our city and, in particular, in relation to that new station, to improve fire response times for residents in the south Tuggeranong area. The tender process for the new south Tuggeranong station commenced in August this year with a pre-tender briefing, and the open tender for construction has been formally advertised.
The government is also moving ahead with due diligence and forward planning for other stations. We have completed the territory plan variation for the new Aranda co-located fire and ambulance facility and the government will give consideration to budget funding for that project in future budget rounds. We are also doing the pre-feasibility and assessment and site identification process for new facilities in locations such as the Pialligo-Campbell area.
I am pleased to say that we have worked through a range of issues associated with the proposal to develop a new fire and rescue station on a vacant block of land adjacent to the intersection of Pialligo Avenue and Beltana Road in Pialligo as part of phase 2 of the overarching strategy. As a result of that, the proposal to locate a new fire and rescue station in Pialligo is now being incorporated into the Pialligo master plan which is under development in the Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate.
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