The holiday season is over and life is returning to normal. Our first Council meeting will be held on Wednesday 27 February at the Weston Club at 7.30 pm. We have the Health Care Consumer’s Association Inc presenting to us on what their role is with Health in the Community. HCCA is the peak health consumer advocacy body in the ACT, supporting and developing health consumer perspectives and policy in the Territory for over 30 years. It is an organisation through which everyone can participate in policy, planning and service decisions that affect their health. HCCA works to improve the quality and availability of health services, supports consumers to identify shared priorities about health and represents these views to the ACT Government.
I have been fortunate to have already met with the group and I encourage everyone to attend to hear of their involvement in health in the community and also just what is happening in the health sphere.
We all thought that by now the first stage of the Cotter Road would have been completed but it seems that Stage 1 of the Cotter Road upgrade will never end. At the time of writing work continues on the road and is restricted to one lane at each end with a 40km/h limit during the day. Originally the roadworks were to be completed by September last year and while there have been some understandable delays due to rain and rock, it is hard to understand why it has not been completed yet.
Bouquets to the Economic Development Directorate for issuing a letter to each household in the Weston Creek area advising us of the next stages of the upgrades to John Gorton Drive and Streeton Drive. I do have concerns with the timeframes stated given our experience so far with the Cotter Road upgrade but we will await progress with interest.
We have all experienced what it could be like when we have many more people living in the Molonglo suburbs of Wright and Coombs when the car parks at Cooleman Court were resurfaced recently. There wasn’t a car park to be found! Let us hope that common sense prevails and there will be changes to enable more short term parking at the Centre. We will see what the Draft Master Plan brings on its release around June of this year for comment but that date seems so far away.
On the car park resurfacing. It has been done, finally, after a few years of Council and the community requesting this to occur and it was completed when Roads ACT said it would be done. However, the quality of the work is a real question with pools of bitumen and piles of loose blue metal everywhere. I haven’t heard a positive comment from anyone as yet about what was done. Most people complaining about the struggle to get their shopping trolley across the car park to their car over piles of loose blue metal. Some so frustrated that they have chosen to move away from Cooleman Court to shop until the car park is better. I will be contacting Roads ACT and raising this matter with them.
To keep up to date with all issues affecting Weston Creek please monitor the Weston Creek Community Council’s website at www.wccc.com.au .
Tom Anderson
Chair