Page 1873 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 2 June 2015
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Over 870 people have signed this petition today, but it is a mere sample of what the good people of Manuka and Forrest will do if and when these developments proceed. The government have been less than open and less than honest with Telopea Park School. They have treated the parents of MOCCA with the same contempt. The old adage that you can fool some of the people some of the time would come to mind except that in this case the Chief Minister has fooled no-one. And they are his own constituents. Minister Burch has just put yet another school community offside, but that is becoming par for this minister, so it will be neither here nor there to her.
This local Molonglo MLA cares, and so do the Canberra Liberals. Under our watch, it would not happen. If we can prevent this shambolic plan from happening, we will. It can be stopped by a stroke of the pen from the Chief Minister. He did exactly that: he backflipped on his original promise to maintain this land for Telopea Park School. He can just as easily reverse his decision to satisfy the community’s call. Or, indeed, Minister Rattenbury could object to this ongoing farce by voicing his objection and for once backing the community that he is meant to represent.
Planning—Giralang shops—petition No 7-15
MR COE (Ginninderra): I seek leave to speak to one of the petitions.
Leave granted.
MR COE: Members would be aware of the ongoing Giralang shops saga. Residents of Giralang have been without local shops for many years. However, unlike in some other suburbs, Giralang is not without shops because the owner of the site does not want to develop the opportunity or because a viable opportunity does not exist; in this case, years of mismanagement and meddling from the government have led to the situation where the owner wants to build new shops but is unable to. The government has given mixed messages to the developer, to opponents and to the community. Nobody has certainty regarding the current situation. It seems that the only winners in this whole saga are the lawyers.
The first development application for the Giralang shops site was lodged in 2008. After that application was refused, a second application was lodged, in 2009. That application was also refused. In 2010, a development application which included a supermarket and speciality shops was lodged with ACTPLA and did receive approval. However, the decision to approve the development was overturned after it was challenged in ACAT. A fourth development application was lodged in 2011. The then Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope, and planning minister, Andrew Barr, were seen to be against the proposed development. However, the new planning minister, Simon Corbell, called in the development and approval was granted. This was, of course, after the resignation of Neil Savery as the head of ACTPLA.
This was not the end, for residents and traders from nearby suburbs challenged the decision in the Supreme Court. The government’s decision to approve the development was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2012 but a further appeal to the full bench of the Supreme Court was lodged. The full bench of the Supreme Court also
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