Page 2011 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 3 June 2015
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idea. I thank members of the ministerial council on the ageing who originally raised the idea of targeting suburbs and focusing on making them age friendly. It was a great idea that came forward and I am pleased to see that it is continuing.
This year we see the investment of $430,000 for the Tuggeranong town centre—the Anketell Street northern end—new improvements which include street trees, landscaping and lighting to improve safety and amenity. Similarly, we see investment in Cooleman Court following on from the master planning process that has taken place for the Weston Creek group centre. The government indicated at the time—I have certainly said this to people in the community and I know that Minister Gentleman agrees—that it wanted to start implementing that master plan. It will take many years.
The idea of a master plan is to roll it out over a period of time. What we see here is an investment to get on with the first part of that master plan and to begin to liven up and refresh areas around the Cooleman Court precinct. We are going to see the design and upgrade of the Brierly Street and Trennery Square landscape, improved pedestrian connections and safety. Again, these are really basic services. These things accrue over time. I reject Mr Hanson’s characterisation of the city being in urban decay. Yes, things age over time. You simply have to get on and replace them and maintain them and the like. That is what this government is doing by making these sorts of investments for the benefit of our community right across the city.
There is $300,000 for public toilet upgrades, for example, at Chifley and at Lake Ginninderra. We have got $50,000 for public domain improvements at the Kambah group centre. We have got $1.2 million to improve lighting to provide safer public spaces across Canberra and some upgrade to energy efficient bulbs. We receive requests from time to time for upgrades to lighting or new lighting where some might not exist. This money will make sure that we continue to improve that so that if people want to walk to and from work, to and from the bus or to and from the shops they can do that not only in the summer but throughout the year, perhaps with a coat and gloves at some times of the year, but nonetheless.
Those sorts of improvements are the ones we want to keep making across this city. In some places the city simply was not built with that infrastructure in the first instance or, in the case of the older parts of Canberra, the infrastructure is of a different era. So steadily replacing that or upgrading it is an objective. The challenge with some of the inner parts, of course, is the heritage status and/or feel of those areas. There is a certain character to them that people do not necessarily want to lose. There is always, of course, a tension there.
There is a range of other upgrades that I could continue to rattle off, but I have given members a flavour of the sorts of upgrades and maintenance that the government is undertaking right across the city. It is very much consistent with Ms Fitzharris’s motion about reflecting the fact that we are doing work in the town centres, the local shopping centres and in the suburbs—fixing the footpaths and all of those kinds of things. Speaking of footpaths, I get quite a few letters about those as well. This year we are seeing a record spend on active travel by the ACT government of $23 million. That will go to a range of both upgrades and new infrastructure. Again, we will see that spread out right across the city.
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