Well is has been a busy month for meeting and events. As you are aware they have lowered Upper Stanger Pond and Isabella Ponds, where they removed over 2000 carp some a massive size. They are also going to lower Tuggeranong Pond by 1.5 metres so they can work on the dam construction. Both Isabella and Tuggeranong will be lowered for the duration of the dam construction likely to be anything from 12 to 18 months. I was told this afternoon that as part of this project one of the bridge lanes of Drakeford Drive will be closed tomorrow (during off-peak times) while they put up screens.
Following the concern expressed by one of our members at our last council meeting about a mountain bike track at Bonython we wrote to the Deputy Director of the Environment and Planning Directorate. I am pleased to say that he has looked into it and said. He said “He had been advised that there is no proposal or authorisation to expand the mountain bike trails outside the existing stage 1 area (which is, and will remain, entirely outside the river corridor boundary). He went on to say he would organize a meting with the relevant people to talk to our member about the issue”.
Last year a community panel was set up to look at the development of West Greenway and recommended against such a development. The Minister commented that therefore the proposed development is “unlikely to go ahead”. I have spoken to a number of people who attended the West Greenway stakeholder panel and am organising a meeting at 6pm on Wednesday the 10th May at the Tuggeranong Archery Centre to talk about the possibility of the Community coming up with a proposal to create a sporting, environmental precinct in the area that we can then present to government as a community proposal. If this original panel agrees then we can organise broader consultation with other members of the Tuggeranong Community to garner their suggestions and opinions and then move on to a planning stage to come up with a comprehensive community proposal for the area that we can then put to the ACT government.
Other meetings I have been involved with include:
- A discussion on public housing at Greenway
- Speaking with other members of the TCC with Minister Gordon Ramsay and Events ACT about possible support for a future Tuggeranong Fair/Markets
- Attending a meeting this morning (in the company of the Chair of our Planning Sub Committee) with people from Capital Works Department, Minister Meegan FitzHarris’ office and Transport Canberra regarding re-routing buses and the development of Anketell Street
- Attended a couple of meeting on the ACT Zero Emission proposals – will be asking Minister Rattenbury to talk to us, hopefully in July about this as well as other matters pertaining to his portfolio
- Attended Canberra Alliance for Participatory Democracy (CAPaD) on Sunday the hear interested community members discussing “the potential for improving consultation in ACT planning and implementation through methods of participatory democracy” – they have formed a small committee to progress ideas
- With other members of the TCC attended “Our Future History: Community pathways to a future we want” – where in small groups we discussed topics including community, education, democracy, economy, food, natural environment
- With the Treasurer, I attended the Combined Community Council meeting at Woden where they showed us some of their concerns about the run down parts of Woden and we spoke about working better together for the benefit of us all
- Waste Feasibility Study – talked about market sounding, green bin roll-out, container deposit scheme and where to from here
I should also mention that:
- I had a call about the fact that the DA for Southquay East has now been released
- The TCC Secretary and I are working on updating our database to include all those people who responded to our various surveys and attended any function that the TCC has organised and they have given us their email address
The next meeting of the TCC will be held on the 6th June at the Tuggeranong Town Centre Club where we will hearing from the Communities @ Work team about they work they do here in Tuggeranong as well as around Canberra. We will also hear the latest about public Housing here in Tuggeranong.