Page 826 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 9 March 2016
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moment. It is the mums who need a quick stop to buy nappies, because there are no more in the house, and find themselves driving round and round trying to find a car park. It becomes quite frustrating.
This situation is set to worsen. The development of the Molonglo Valley precinct is well underway, with stage 1 encompassing the suburbs of Coombs, Wright and North Weston. This area incorporates 4,500 dwellings and around 10,000 people, many of whom are already using Cooleman Court to do their shopping and access services for health, community, banking, child care, recreational or social reasons. Then we will have stage 2, which is projected to include the district’s principal commercial centre, and has an even higher population target of 18,000 residents and around 7,300 dwellings, which places even more strain on the Weston group centre.
The Weston group centre master plan accepts that there will be an increased demand for car parking during the transitional period while the Molonglo Valley residents use the Weston group centre, and it is not hard to understand why. The Molonglo Valley development will directly result in more traffic, more people, more cars and more demand over the coming weeks, months and years until Molonglo get their own group centre.
In addition to the issue of car parking at Cooleman Court, which is often under pressure, particularly at peak times when it is really at capacity, loading areas in the car parks create conflict with pedestrian and driver connections into the centre. Directional signage is also limited. This makes it increasingly difficult for Weston Creek’s older demographic to get around and do their shopping. 16.4 per cent of Weston Creek residents are over the age of 65 years. This compares to 10.5 per cent across the ACT and 13.8 per cent nationally. So the area has a higher rate of older Canberrans.
Another setback for community members that use the group centre was the failed car park resurfacing efforts of 2013. Although it improved the situation, it took a fair bit of pain and patience from residents. Both north and south car parks were resealed yet, during the high temperatures of December that year, significant road bleeding occurred, partly due to the shortcomings of the chip seal or spray seal surface that was used as opposed to more expensive options. People could not push their trolleys. Those in cars and pedestrians were inconvenienced and the car park surface required fixing over and over. For such a high-traffic, high-use, compact car park, this was a disaster for many. We note that there is provision in the Weston Group master plan for improvement, like increases to short-stay car parking near the retail core, but it does not bring about larger infrastructure changes which are needed to cater for the ageing population and families.
Furthermore, according to Infrastructure Australia, Weston Creek’s projected employment is expected to rise. Despite there being talk of a commercial centre for Molonglo Valley residents, we do not see from this government many of the finer details. We do not know when it will be built. We do not know what services or shops are hoped to be offered there. We do not have a clear time line for a start or end date. We do not have an overview of expected time lines to be able to advise residents of these two areas when they ask the question. They deserve more than that.
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