Council writes to Minister Gentleman on the Coombs Shops stating ” it’s time to take decisive action to resolve the situation”.
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- Agenda – Next WCCC Meeting 30 Aug 23EVENT: WCCC AUGUST PUBLIC MEETING. DATE: WEDNESDAY, 30 AUGUST. TIME: 7:30 PM LOCATION: WESTON CREEK COMMUNITY CENTRE, off PARKINSON STREET Council invites the Weston Creek community to the public meeting on 30 AUGUST 2023. Please note that the previously advertised guests, Major Projects Canberra and TCCS talking about Stage 2B Light Rail design, have been rescheduled until the September ...
- Agenda – Next WCCC Meeting 30 Aug 23
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The Coombs shops are a disgrace. Presumably the owner is just sitting on the land value and doesn’t give a damn whether there are any tenants or not. I hope the post-COVID recession sends him broke.
The shops themselves are an embarrassing eyesore. It’s an awful design and doesn’t look at all like the original concept drawings. And fake ivy panels from Aldi half way up the walls now deteriorating from exposure. Even the lettering on the entry sign looks cheap and amateurish. Surprised he puts his name to it. Just appalling. It should be bulldozed.
I have been advised to expect a response from Minister Gordon Ramsay to my email seeking government action about the options outlined in the WCCC letter.
The office of Mick Gentleman, MLA writes that “This particular aspect of the Coombs Shops issue sits within the portfolio responsibilities of Minister Gordon Ramsay.”
Minister Ramsay is responsible for a number of portfolios. I wonder which one is relevant here? Possibly the Attorney General role. In which case, presumably, the Coombs Shops imbroglio has been moved from being a planning matter to a legal matter for ACT government.
The social and environmental impact of the Coombs shops cannot be underestimated. Elderly and disabled from Weston Creek struggling for parking and movement through the now severely overcrowded Cooleman Court shopping precinct. Weston Creek with a big aged and often disabled population living in surrounding retirement villages staring in bewilderment as they try to shop in the overcrowded atmosphere.
Molonglo Valley residents many with young families with prams and toddlers trying to purchase their groceries in this apocalyptic environment. Residents from the Molonglo without transport pushing shopping trolleys back into the Molonglo from Cooleman Court over long distances. It is impossible to bring the weekly shop of affordable groceries home for a family on public transport.
The cost and environmental damage to the general Molonglo community of driving their cars from Molonglo past the virtually empty Coombs shops on the approx 10 kilometre round journey to Cooleman Court for affordable groceries. The Coombs shops having severely impacted on the liveability of residents in their suburbs of Coombs and Wright and making a joke of a climate change emergency in the ACT.
And still after 5 years we have the almost vacant Coombs shops other than our much valued Ajijo Convenience Store, in need of urgent Government intervention for the communities of Weston Creek and the Molonglo.