Residents’ groups are often criticised as being a bunch of NIMBYs who will reject any suburban development, regardless of the merits. Nothing could be further from the truth.
For some time we have been discussing constructively with the Government proposed redevelopment of several public housing complexes in Griffith, Narrabundah and Red Hill. These projects will result in substantial population increases in these suburbs, and we are working hard to ensure they will not compromise local amenity.
Similarly, we have never suggested that we would oppose any residential development adjacent to the Canberra Brickworks in Yarralumla. We just want to make the sure the development is of a reasonable scale, rather than the massive changes currently slated for this precious part of old Canberra.
The Canberra Liberals have come up with an alternative proposal which addresses a number of the residents’ concerns. We hope the Land Development Authority also responds favourably to the points made in the Inner South Canberra Community Council submission, which you can find on our website here
The ACT elections due in October 2016 will provide us with an opportunity to demonstrate to our politicians that we care about our suburbs and will fight to protect their character.
The new 25-seat Assembly means that for the first time the inner south will share its Assembly members with only one other part of Canberra, the inner north, with which we happen to share many common problems.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the big end of town has an undue influence on the major political parties on planning issues and the community interest often comes a poor second.
We will be watching closely all candidates in our new Kurrajong electorate to see how they respond to our concerns and we will hold them accountable for the life of the Assembly.
Gary Kent, Chair