Page 1526 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 14 May 2014
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upgrades to the play pond provide an opportunity for social gathering and imaginative and creative play as well as walking paths.
As to the Tuggeranong town park, with the investment of $1 million over two years, the government will deliver a range of improvements following substantial consultation. These improvements include a new entry path and foreshore promenade from Bartlett Place car park to the lake foreshore with provision of compliant accessible car parking spaces and upgrading of lighting along the foreshore. Pedestrian access will be improved by suitable path surfacing and greater width to allow for a variety of users, including cyclists. Visitors will be encouraged to stay longer to use the existing facilities, for example, by providing new picnic tables and seating, shade over the play equipment and new, attractive, comfortable seating along the foreshore and in the barbecue area. The new path connection provides more opportunity for walkers to gently explore the path area by providing a short loop around the foreshore and back to the car park. These improvements will make existing outdoor facilities more accessible to a broader range of visitors.
Members may recall in November last year we debated a motion from Mrs Jones about playgrounds. I will take a few moments to refresh the Assembly on the commitment I made to improve playgrounds through the final agreed motion, which was:
… that the ACT continues to manage and develop playgrounds that respond to diverse needs; and … there is an on-going capital works program aligned with an asset management strategy that focuses on improving ACT play spaces, in line with Australian and ACT standards and best practice contemporary play space design, which aims to improve health and recreational outcomes …
This is an area the government remains committed to, and we are all in agreement that playgrounds are important to families across Canberra.
As Ms Berry notes, the government is committed to improving a broad range of recreational facilitates, and one of those elements is that we have a world-class skateboarding facility network across Canberra. $100,000 was provided in the TAMS capital upgrade program in the 2013-14 budget to undertake a safety audit of Canberra’s skate parks and for upgrade works at Kambah district park and the Eddison park skate facilities. The works at Eddison park are already complete and work at Kambah district park is scheduled to commence in the near future to be completed by the end of June this year.
Skate parks provide many benefits as an alternative recreation opportunity for people of all ages where skills can be developed and improved. Skate parks encourage people, particularly boys, to engage in active outdoor physical activity, which is in line with maintaining healthy weight and healthy lifestyles. I recently met with a delegation from the skateboarding fraternity, and they challenge some of the stereotypes that many people would have of the skateboarding community. It was not just teenage boys; there were a number of more mature members of our community. They were very engaging and it was a very good discussion. They came very well prepared in terms of what their asks were and making their case about the skateboarding community in Canberra. I found it a very useful and interesting conversation. As a
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