ANDREW Barr says the Budget will provide more mowing, cleaning, weeding and other maintenance to Canberra’s suburbs.

“Since becoming Chief Minister, I’ve been out from behind the Treasurer’s desk listening to what Canberrans want and we all agree we want the look of our city to reflect the pride we feel in it,” Andrew said.

“So this investment sees $7.754 million provided to allow more frequent mowing, weed control, tree maintenance and cleaning of bus stops, lakes and ponds.

“The extra mowing will include a ‘surge mowing capacity’ so high visibility and high use areas like major parks and arterial roads get an extra mow when they need it.

“It also includes an extra mow for the whole city. Currently we mow every suburb five times a year. Under this budget initiative we’ll mow them all six times.

“The Budget investment will see a rolling cleaning program of the almost 440 hectares of urban lakes and ponds, such as Lake Tuggeranong and Lake Ginninderra, which the ACT Government looks after. Funding will allow additional removal of debris from within lakes and ponds, as well as litter picking around their edge. We’ll hire two more staff to clean up our lakes and ponds, which means they’ll be cleaned every quarter rather than every six months.

“The ACT Government manages over 700,000 trees in the urban area. This extra funding will allow for increased maintenance of trees around road signs, bus stops and in high visibility areas. This will help alleviate line of sight issues, as well as allow additional formative pruning works on young developing trees. It will also allow for more weed removal on road verges, median strips and cycle paths.”

Shane Rattenbury said that the additional funding will provide TAMS with the resources required to support the growing number of Canberra suburbs.

“In recognition of the continued development of our city, the Budget also provides $8.084m over four years to maintain roads, paths, streetlights, road verges, parks and playgrounds in new suburbs. The funding also provides for waste collection from new dwellings,” Shane said

“TAMS takes pride in looking after our city and this funding will help to ensure our public places and recreational areas are well maintained and enhance Canberra’s status as the world’s most liveable city.”