Page 2101 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 June 2018
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
particularly in the inner north and inner south where many deciduous trees are planted and the stormwater system feeds their leaves into Lake Burley Griffin.
I take this opportunity to talk about a streetsweeper that one of my constituents saw by happenstance last week in Downer. According to the street sweeping schedule, Downer streets are to be swept in May. Last week, on 31 May, the streetsweeper was seen in Blacket Street, Downer at 11 am, with much of the suburb still badly needing sweeping—far too much to be done by the end of that day. Yet the most concerning part of this sighting was the fact that the sweeper brushes were circulating and the truck was travelling along the gutters of Blacket Street but no leaves were being sucked up. I assume this is because the truck had already filled to the brim with the substantial leaf litter around that suburb and it would need to return to a depot to empty the carrier.
A more frequent sweeping schedule would allow sweepers to sweep larger areas without having to empty their loads as often. I raise this because it is very emblematic of the problem. The government has adopted an insufficient sweeping schedule such that when the sweepers do come around there is so much leaf litter that it takes many more trips to cover the suburb than if a more frequent schedule were adopted.
The government needs to respond more readily to fix my street requests for street sweeping. Every day that leaves lie unswept in our gutters, the more nutrients make their way into our waterways, leading to more summer days without access to our lakes due to blue-green algal blooms. Not only does this impact our environment and our ability to enjoy natural recreational activities but what is the point of the federal coalition government and the ACT government investing millions and millions of dollars into cleaning up our lakes when, because of a lack of street sweeping, we just dump the leaves and other litter directly into our waterways anyway?
Timely responses to jobs logged on the fix my street website are important because, as the entire point of establishing this website is to hear from Canberrans who have specific details and knowledge of what streets need to be swept, this is only helping the government do its job. But if we are to encourage residents to continue to log these jobs, we need to make sure that the system is one that is able to keep them informed and in the loop—not only that the job has been logged and that it will be actioned but also precisely when and precisely what street is going to be swept.
This can be in any number of ways. Whether it be by more of a detailed schedule specifying which streets will be swept within what week, some ideas which may be letterboxed or even through live tracking, the important fact is that Canberrans deserve to know when their specific street will be swept. This will allow residents to make it easier for the government to do its job, including moving cars from street parking to the driveway to allow easy access for streetsweepers.
There is no doubt that many streets that have the most build-up of fallen leaves are in my electorate of Kurrajong. The irony is also not lost on a number of my constituents who pay some of the highest rates in the territory. In fact a tongue-in-cheek comment was made to me by an inner south resident the other week that it may be more cost
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video