It’s been another interesting month with a mix of good and not-so-good developments. On the positive side, earth works have now started on the South Quay development opposite Bunnings. This will bring jobs and eventually more residents living close to the Town Centre. This won’t happen overnight though with the first land sale not scheduled until about mid 2014.
Another positive is start of duplication of upper Erindale Drive. When completed, this should fix one of our peak hour bottlenecks. Our guest speaker tonight, Mr Ben McHugh from Roads ACT, will be able to tell us more about this project.
I mentioned at the October meeting that I wanted the TCC to respond to the ACT Government’s invitation to submit ideas that could contribute to the framing of next year’s budget. I sent an email inviting all members to provide me their ideas. I got five replies so I picked the eyes out of them and our submission went in. I was intending to circulate it via email but it has disappeared into cloudland. I’m still learning about the TCC’s email system so I haven’t given up hope of finding it! I do have a hard copy if anyone is interested in reading it.
You may have seen articles in the last two Chronicles about the problems Mr Phil King has been having with developing an aquatic centre next to Calwell shops. This development would have provided a public pool where it’s needed and also provided local employment. This couldn’t proceed unless he paid a ‘late fee’ of more than $300K to the ACT Government. Treasurer Barr could waive this fee in certain circumstances. I was pleased to lend my support as were other TCC members to his plea for the waiving of this fee. Treasurer Barr decided reduce it to $155,000. It now appears that Mr King will abandon this project. Russ Morison intends speaking further about this later in the meeting.
I did have a brief letter to the Editor of the Canberra Times published in early October stating that the TCC supported the development of the new Tuggeranong cemetery including a crematorium. This was in reaction to an earlier article that questioned the need for a second crematorium in Canberra. I have been taken to task by some residents who disagreed with the crematorium bit. I accept that this is a controversial topic and needs more community discussion. We will invite Hamish Horne, CEO ACT Cemeteries Authority to a meeting early next year when he should be in a better position to advise us on the scope of facilities planned for the new cemetery.
Last Saturday morning, the Tuggeranong Lake Carer’s Group organised a lake clean-up. A small number of TCC members volunteered to help. We did manage to collect quite a few bags of rubbish and , compared with last year, there was noticeably less garbage around the lake perimeter. Hopefully, the message about the value of the lake is getting through.
The executives of community councils from all over Canberra get together about three monthly to discuss topics of common interest. This can then lead to joint submissions to Government which we hope carry more weight. As an example, Russ Morison pulled together a submission on behalf of the combined community councils on ACTION’s recent Network 14, their plan for route and schedule changes for next year. The TCC is hosting the next meeting this Saturday morning.
The annual Tuggeranong Festival is being held on Saturday 23 November in the Town Park. As usual, the TCC will set up a stall for the day. We need volunteers to man it so if you can spare a few hours, would you please put your name down on the sheet.
Finally, I would ask you all to take an interest in the big projects that the ACT Government is proposing like light rail, city to the lake and the city plan. These are all projects where public input is invited, we will all be committed to pay for them so we should take notice. (Click here for PDF Copy TCC Presidents November Report )
Eric Traise
TCC President