Page 812 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 18 March 2015
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An alternative option for passengers wishing to catch more regular and direct services to Woden or Civic is to access the bus stops located on Uriarra Road, which I believe are the ones Mr Doszpot was referring to. I acknowledge that they are some distance away, but for those who are able to walk that is an option.
The arrangement between ACTION and Qcity means that Oaks Estate residents can transfer between Qcity and ACTION bus services at no extra cost. Oaks Estate residents can also transfer from an ACTION service to a Qcity service by purchasing a single fare or validating a MyWay card on an ACTION bus within 90 minutes of purchase.
Students may use a Qcity Transit school term ticket to transfer at any time. ACTION regularly meets with Qcity regarding the provision of route and school services to and from Oaks Estate. At this point in time there are no future plans for ACTION to schedule services to or from Oaks Estate as there is an agreement in place with Qcity and ACTION has not been able to identify the resources to do that. But I will continue to look at those options as we develop the ACTION network. There are a number of parts of the ACT where bus services do need to be improved. We have made improvements with ACTION in recent times and I will continue to strive to make those improvements where I can.
That is the best I can say on the buses at this point. I acknowledge I did write last term about this issue. I wrote to ministers advocating for changes to be made. Since I have come into the portfolio I have reflected on those, although I have not been approached by the residents association this term that I can recall. However, I will double-check that too. While we seek to get an outcome on these things, unfortunately I cannot deliver all the outcomes that I would like to with ACTION. That is an ongoing challenge. We will see what we can do to keep improving that.
Regarding the planning issues, there is a need to address a range of concerns. I believe that the recently released Oaks Estate master plan will make some concrete steps towards progress in this area. The government has had a master planning process underway for a number of years for Oaks Estate. I know that there has been considerable discussion with the residents, the Queanbeyan City Council and Housing ACT on the development of the master plan.
I am also aware that residents were concerned that the master planning process, being a process driven by ACTPLA as a planning document, was largely focused on the built environment rather than on social issues. I believe there were similar concerns about the heritage planning being undertaken in the estate.
I understand that this master plan is something like the third round of planning that has been started for Oaks Estate. I believe that the master plan released last December is actually the first to be finalised, so that is a good thing. I certainly share Mr Doszpot’s frustration there. To have a process start and then taper off is a very unsatisfactory outcome. I am pleased that this one has actually gone to the point of fruition, because I think it does test the faith of the community when a process is started and is not completed. It is an improvement to actually see this one finalised.
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