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Bob Sutherland welcomed members of the committee and the general public. Bob advised that there was no invited speaker this month so that the meeting could focus on a number of significant issues and also allow time to respond and debate issues of concern from the residents in attendance. This was indicated in the February and March flyers that were distributed to all letterboxes in Weston Creek.

No apologies were received.

The Minutes of the last monthly meeting (which was also the 1998 AGM) were distributed to all attendees. The minutes were provided for information and not adopted, as this would be undertaken at next years AGM.

Mr Henderson indicated that minutes of WCCC meetings were now available on our web site at

http://www2.dynamite.com.au/wccc

Bob advised the meeting that he and Mr Henderson had had a meeting with representatives of Dept of Urban Services (Ms Susan Conroy and Mr Ross Burden) on 10^th June to discuss issues on the identification of an acceptable location and the facilities to be provided. There has been very little progress by either Canberra Urban Parks in the Dept of Urban Services or TotalCare Projects. The actions at present are to ‘re-visit’ what has been achieved to date.

Bob indicated that he had visited the 11 proposed sites with Ms Conroy on 17^th June. A number of concerns were noted with particular sites and these opportunities and constraints need to be factored into the decision making process. The Holder Primary School oval was suggested in October 1997 but not debated at the public meeting February 1998. This site was visited together with the existing Holder Primary School playground. Both these sites have potential.

The Weston Primary School Oval was considered to have high potential. The site near the Weston Creek Community Service and Cooleman Court is still being considered. Deek’s Run which was an early consideration does have problems in respect to control of the land and possible closure in summer fire danger periods. The site at Brierly St/Hindmarsh Drive is very close to residents and would receive objections. A member of the audience from Watling Place confirmed that objections would be raised. The Streeton/Hindmarsh site adjacent to the Royals Football Club Carpark would have drainage and tree clearing problems. The archery site already has active users and is also subject to drainage problems as it is adjoining the actual Weston Creek.

The location near the scout hall may be too small but this would be dependent on the facilities provided. It is very central and in terms of other attributes compares well to similar facilities in Civic, Tuggeranong and Belconnen. The vacant block next to Canberra College - Weston Campus (Stirling College) is also very close to residences.

Surprisingly there is work being undertaken to upgrade the existing half-pipe skateboard facility at the Stirling Netball Courts. This site has the potential to expand and is central although not highly visible. The issue of the qualities of the site were raised by a number of people in the audience. What were the qualities that the site needed to possess? - this has never been fully explained nor the rationale presented. The opportunities and constraints of the various sites are mixed and ill defined. Essentially, it is generally considered that 3 sites are eliminated, Deeks Runs, the Archery site, Streeton/Hindmarsh intersection site adjacent to the Royals carpark. This takes the options from 12 to 9.

The meeting requested the Chair to ask Dept of Urban Services to

-Provide a list of the qualities the site needed to have.

-Provide the definition and rationale for both opportunities and constraints.

-Indicate the type and size (area) of the ‘youth’ facilities to be provided (assumed 12-16yrs age group).

-Provide the WCCC with the outcomes of discussions held with students at Stromlo High and Canberra College - Weston Campus (Stirling College) as was agreed at the February 98 meeting

At this stage it is not appropriate to invite Urban Services to another monthly meeting.

Bob Sutherland attended a Chief Ministers Department briefing on Tuesday 23^rd June on the ACT Budget. The briefing was at a high level on the budget outcomes and outputs. It did not go into details. It was apparent that $3.5M would be made available to precinct management committees throughout Canberra but it was not known how much was still allocated to the Cooleman Court open spaces. Assurance was provided that the $3,000 grant to the WCCC would continue.

The funding to pre-schools was debated at the briefing and it was indicated that there is actually a rise in the funding per child. Members of this audience indicated that this aberration has occurred as preschool enrolment procedures have changed which affects (lowers) the number of students on enrolment lists.

Mr Henderson advised the meeting of the progress of the Cooleman Court precinct committee. There was speculation at previous precinct meetings that the original budget of $625,000 was being reduced by $100,000 to $525,000 and of this $75,000 was for engineering and survey costs. Therefore only $450,000 was available for the provision of facilities. The actual outcome in the ACT Budget was yet to be determined.

The detailed engineering costings and drawings are being undertaken on the preferred option and ACT Government agencies need to respond to these. In addition a formal public consultation phase is required. The timing for the commencement of construction was indicated to be late November. The precinct group, on advice from the traders in the group, agreed to defer the commencement of construction until after Christmas and aim for a January start.

As the WCCC representative on the precinct group (along with Jocelyn Murphy) those meeting had moved from fortnightly to monthly.

The announcement of the new zone fares for ACTION buses has implications for the cost of travel to and from Weston Creek. The material available indicates that there will be 2 zones from Weston Creek to Civic and the return journey (cash fare) will be $4. It is anticipated that the new bus routes will take effect from 17 August.

The journey from Weston Creek to Civic will cross a zone boundary and will therefore incur the maximum fare. Journeys crossing two zonal boundaries will not incur an increase in fare but will be charged the maximum fare. However, Weston Creek to Tuggeranong travel should now be cheaper (even on journey's routed through the Woden interchange) because these journey's take place within the zone and do not cross a boundary.

Marion Kossatz reported on the publicity she undertook regarding the vandalism of new houses in Fisher. There has been no response from either politicians or bureaucrats to the media attention and the homes are still unoccupied. The reason for the houses being empty is speculative but it is thought to be affected by identifying compatible candidates to take up residence. There has been (confirmed) damage of $11,000 and two attempts to burn down the houses. Mr Sutherland indicated that he would write to the new Health Minister, Michael Moore on the issue.

The WCCC received a fax from Bruce Taggart of Aranda regarding the redevelopment proposals for Aranda and Latham Shops. He was interested in an update on any proposals to redevelop Rivett Shops. Residents from Rivett indicated that the shops were deteriorating however there was no rumour of redevelopment plans. Mr Henderson indicated that he would contact Mr Taggart and Planning and Land Management in the ACT Government.

The WCCC has been invited to provide a submission to the Legislative Assembly Inquiry into bus services for school children. Members of the audience who are able to assist in the writing of the submission are asked to assist Bob Sutherland.

The Chief Ministers Dept has invited the WCCC to the next meeting of the Combined Community Councils. The meeting will take place on Wednesday 8^th July 5.00pm-7.00pm and our attendees will be Bob Sutherland and Jeff Carl.

The WCCC answering machine is giving problems but please be patient. Bob Sutherland advised that a new machine would be purchased soon. In the interim Ken Galvin offered a spare machine for use by the WCCC - Bob to attend to the arrangements.

Mr Henderson advised that faxes had been sent to all 17 MLA’s requesting that the WCCC be added to their fax stream for press releases.

Meeting closed 9.25pm

Next monthly meeting 22^nd July 1998.