Page 2928 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 14 August 2019
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(b) recognise a more pleasant and conducive dining environment would be achieved without buses running along Anketell Street; and
(c) re-route buses away from Anketell Street.
It is pleasing that the long-awaited redevelopment of Anketell Street has finally been completed. I am sure that the businesses along there are relieved that the roadwork has finished, and residents and shoppers as well—I go down there frequently—are pleased to see it open again. Apart from some debate about what we have got for our money and whether you like the look of it, that is not the point of my motion today. My motion today is specifically calling on the government to take the buses off Anketell Street. This will be a very clear indication of whether this Labor-Greens alliance government listens to the people of Tuggeranong.
To go back a while, in November 2017 we had a petition signed by over 700 Tuggeranong residents who petitioned the government to keep buses off Anketell Street. Has the government listened? No. I was there this morning. There are definitely buses back on Anketell Street.
We had the petition to the Speaker and members of the ACT Legislative Assembly saying:
We the Tuggeranong community seek to have the buses removed from the cafe area of the Anketell Street, Tuggeranong Town Centre to an alternate route …
This will improve the social amenity of the cafe area, assist the Government town centres revitalisation program, supports the transport strategy and light rail initiatives, will encourage small business start-ups …
The petition went on.
The Tuggeranong Community Council have also strongly petitioned this view, with a number of letters to numerous MLAs on the government, crossbench and opposition sides. Many letters have gone back and forth. What has been the community reaction? We have just had the site closed for over six months. The buses were rerouted down Cowlishaw Street during that time. I understand that some issues may need to be addressed if that is to be a permanent route for the buses. We have had quite a long time. We have had nearly two years since that petition. We have had over six months when the street has been closed along the front of South.Point and the buses have gone a different way. Yet just last week when I asked the minister in question time he said he was thinking about it. This is a lot of thinking over a very long period since November 2017.
The community have said they would like traffic off that strip altogether—no cars or buses—but buses would be a great first point. One person said:
700 people signed a petition to get the buses out? A new road doesn’t change that!
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