MICK Gentleman says the Calwell Group Centre Master Plan aims to reinforce the centre as a thriving community hub by encouraging more activity and creating places to meet and socialise.
“The release of the master plan today marks the final stage in a partnership between the Calwell community and the ACT Government to develop a plan that meets the community’s aspirations for the centre,” Mick said.
“The master plan aims to reinforce the important role that the Calwell centre plays for surrounding areas, particularly the Calwell District Playing Fields and the Tuggeranong Homestead. It encourages active living and active travel by recommending an improved pedestrian and cyclist network to these destinations, as well as within the centre. This will make the centre safer, easier to navigate and more appealing for people to walk or cycle from surrounding suburbs.
“It was very important to the community that the public areas of the centre be improved and the master plan recommends how to make these public spaces more appealing for people to enjoy. It also recommends improving the landscaping by providing more trees to shade outdoors areas including play spaces.
“The master plan also allows for additional residential development to be included in the centre to provide for more housing choice in the future. This will appeal to people who wish to downsize and want to remain in the same area or age in place.
“The local community is at the very heart of this area and I am always pleased when engagement with the community and industry results in a balanced and progressive plan such as the Calwell Group Centre Master Plan.
“This master plan will ensure an active, vibrant and prosperous centre for residents of south-east Tuggeranong and I, like the rest of the community, will follow the development with great interest and enthusiasm,” Minister Gentleman concluded.
See the master plan and supporting reports at planning.act.gov.au
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![Teacher Vanessa Jones has been living in Higgins since 2001, and while she loves the area, she says she is “fed up” with the neglectful ACT government.
The Higgins shops have been completely abandoned, says Vanessa, preventing the opportunity for residents to have a community-centred space to socialise.
They only received bins nine months ago, she says, and requests for a water station and repairs to the bus station have gone unanswered.
“It’s very, very slow,” says Vanessa.
“I asked for the zebra crossing on Fullagar [Crescent] to be repainted, and we had to wait about six or nine months.
“That’s just such a long time… we pay a lot of rates.”
Vanessa says assistance from the government only seems to go to communities with time-rich and assertive communities, leaving places such as Higgins, where the majority of households have both adults working full-time and English may not be the first language of the family, at an automatic disadvantage.
“If you’ve got two people working, paying a mortgage, raising two or three kids, they don’t have the time,” says Vanessa.
Vanessa says the lack of attention quieter places such as Higgins is receiving is starting to look a lot like favouritism.
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