Email: wccc@dynamite.com.au

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Bob Sutherland welcomed the committee and members of the public. There was the need to revisit the DHA proposal for Stirling and the new roundabout on Cotter Road. Other issues resulting from the last meeting and new issues raised in the last month, which would be addressed, are:

• ACT Urban Waterway Planning Workshop.
• Consultation and LAPACS
• Electoral Redistribution
• Any other business

Superintendent Chris Lines, AFP

Alan Henderson, WCCC

The minutes of the March 2000 meeting were distributed. These were accepted by Jeff Carl and seconded by Bob Sutherland.

Bob Sutherland introduced this topic and turned the floor over to Mrs Chris Hunter for an update on recent developments. Extensive discussions followed, the main points made by Mrs Hunter and fellow Streeton Drive resident, Mr Barry Davis were as follows:

• The draft plans for the development were released by PALM on 17 April 2000 (the first Monday of the school holiday period) with comments/objections to be lodged by 10 May 2000.
• Mrs Hunter has approached all Streeton Drive residents affected by the development and she believes that they are unanimously opposed to the proposed traffic calming measures.
• Mrs Hunter will be approaching Chapman and Stirling residents affected by the development to canvass their views. She will also be leaving relevant material on public display at Chapman shops.
• (Small) notices have appeared on the development site asking for objections by 10 May 2000.
• PALM still provides copies of maps of Stirling showing the development site having a public open space use rather than a residential use. (The land use for the site was changed to residential use in 1993.)
• Some local residents are disadvantaged by the proposed traffic arrangements because they cannot access to their driveways when travelling up Streeton Drive from Hindmarsh Drive. Mr Davis is particularly disadvantaged by this.
• There are apparent anomalies in the planning procedures in that there are no details for individual house designs (these will be submitted later), and an EIS is not necessary for the site.
• If the site is accessed from a roundabout off the Darwinia Terrace intersection, then the traffic calming measures might not be needed.

Bob Sutherland closed off discussion on this topic by indicating that the WCCC may not best suited to pursue each of the above points since they do not all directly affect the residents of Weston Creek. He suggested that the local residents might be better served by establishing their own lobby group to pursue each of these points. The WCCC will give all available assistance to any such lobby group that might result.

However Bob did commit the WCCC to follow-up on the following points:

• Make submissions to ACTION regarding the impact of the traffic calming measures on bus services/routes, and the potential need for some routes to be diverted.
• Make submissions to Urban Services/PALM regarding access to individual driveways from Streeton Drive whilst travelling in either direction along Streeton Drive.
• Make submissions to Urban Services/PALM regarding the availability of other potential sites for housing development in Weston Creek so that the Streeton Drive site is no longer needed.
• Make submissions to Urban Services/PALM regarding our earlier submission on locating an on-road cycle path on Streeton Drive and the impact of the proposed traffic calming measures on this cycle path.

Bob Sutherland outlined the present proposals for the new dual-lane roundabout on Cotter Road at the intersection with Kirkpatrick Street. The present proposals were outlined in the letter dated 6 April 2000 from Mr Gary Humphries and resulted from various questions raised with the Minister by the WCCC. This roundabout gives access to the expanded Joint Services Staff College. The present proposal has Cotter Road remaining single lane in either direction between the traffic lights on the Streeton Drive intersection and the approaches to the Tuggeranong Parkway. The meeting unanimously agreed that the present proposals are inadequate in that they do attempt to mitigate the congestion on Cotter Road outbound from Weston Creek experienced during morning peakhour. It was agreed that the minimum acceptable solution is for the 80 metres or so of single lane roadway on Cotter Road between the new roundabout and the Tuggeranong Parkway be upgraded to dual-lane status. The WCCC will make a final submission to this effect to Urban Services.

John Logue from the committee of the WCCC gave a brief presentation of this workshop that he attended. The workshop basically dealt with the future directions for stormwater in the ACT and was designed to raise awareness and encourage participation of the local community and local industry in stormwater matters. It appears that most ACT Government departments and agencies have an interest in the ACT's stormwater system. The workshop highlighted the fact that the ACT's urban lakes are intended for flood mitigation purposes, not for recreational purposes, and the Government has no money available to upgrade these lakes to allow recreational uses. Methods were discussed for handling stormwater included controlling run-off and storing stormwater for other uses (eg irrigation, drinking water, etc).

Bob Sutherland led discussion on this topic. LAPACs (Local Area Planning and Advisory Committees) are comprised of some Government nominated members and some locally elected members and deal with local development issues/proposals. In recent times LAPACs have been agitating to have their status changed. At the present time, development decisions made by LAPACs (and any other community or local organisation) are merely advisory. LAPACs want to change their status so that their decisions have force in law (ie they are no longer advisory). The meeting agreed that this change in status might not be desirable, and that Bob should pursue this issue in his regular local newspaper columns.

The draft report by the Electoral Commissioner on the Electoral Redistribution was discussed. Since it is generally in agreement with the WCCC's submission, no further submissions will be made.

Mrs Hunter raised this issue that relates to the proposed change in land use for a portion of the Molonglo River corridor to allow the extension of car parking at the expanded Staff College in Weston. She believes that it is creating a dangerous precedent by reducing the corridor and allowing a potential increase in the run-off of oils, etc into the river.

As the area concerned is part of the Murray-Darling catchment area and involves Federal and local Governments, it is believed that the WCCC will have little or no influence in the decision-making process.

The poor general state of footpaths, nature strips, etc was discussed. Particular concern was raised about overgrown footpaths and nature strips that forced pedestrians to walk on the roadway. Concern was also expressed about concrete paths that are being broken-up by the heavy agricultural-type mowers that are now being used by some mowing contractors. The meeting agreed to flag this issue in our next flyer.

Marion Kossatz asked if Weston Creek could be considered for staging the next community pick-up similar to the one recently held in Tuggeranong. Bob Sutherland advised the meeting that the Tuggeranong pick-up was part of an ACT trial. If the final results of the trial were successful, the scheme would be extended to cover all parts of the ACT.

Meeting closed at 9.25 pm

Next Meeting: Annual General Meeting Wednesday 24^th May 2000