Page 834 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 9 March 2016
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It is also worth noting that the new school, the Charles Weston School, has been designed to be a community hub and provide a range of community facilities in the way that schools are being designed now to recognise that the infrastructure provided should not only be used between 8.30 and 3.30 in the afternoon but is, in fact, a community asset that has a great deal to offer the entire community. I am very pleased that that design thinking has been put in place in the Charles Weston School.
Phasing of these facilities in a new area like Molonglo is important. We talked about the importance of small business yesterday, and it would not be feasible for small businesses or for other facilities to be developed in advance of a large enough population to support them. This is always the tricky balance—you can open a new supermarket, but if there is no-one there to use it and support it, the supermarket will not survive as an ongoing business. There is a balance; there needs to be a critical mass for these facilities to viable. But, over time, the facilities that are developed will be viable, and that is the way Canberra has developed historically.
Residents of Weston Creek, of course, will also benefit from facilities that are being developed as part of the Molonglo area, such as the wonderful work that TAMS has been doing along the river park where there are new walking tracks, new picnic facilities and the like and proposed facilities at Stromlo Forest Park, of course, including future aquatic facilities. As development proceeds there will be a Molonglo group centre.
There was discussion today of the service station at Weston Creek. Of course, this is an interesting story, and I think I have reflected on this before. There used to be many service stations in Weston Creek. With the Woolworths approach to service station provision of undercutting the local businesses, all the good citizens of Weston Creek went for that option, of course, and the local service stations closed down. We now have only one service station in Weston Creek. It is pretty congested and I think people are frustrated by the amount of time they often have to queue there.
The government has released a site for a new service station on the corner of Cotter Road and Kirkpatrick Street near the Tuggeranong Parkway which will provide additional convenience to residents of both Molonglo and Weston Creek. Many people will be able to get fuel on the way to and from home, and I am sure that will come with a convenience store which will provide further amenity and potentially avoid some trips to Cooleman Court.
I think it is important to reflect on the whole picture here. There is no doubt that Cooleman Court is a very popular shopping facility. It is a great shopping facility. As a former resident of Weston Creek myself and with my parents currently in the area, I know it is a facility that provides an enormous range of options for people both in terms of day-to-day shopping and things like dining facilities and the like. It is a very popular centre, one that is very convenient for people and one that is going to change. I think the master plan has done a good job of identifying areas for improvement, and I know TAMS is already working on a range of those proposals. One of the things we have discussed in government is that these master plans need to be not only talked through the community and developed but implemented as well. I know TAMS is working on some of those initiatives now and that is a good outcome.
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