At our May 5 public forum, Ian Baird, Manager of Policy and Planning for Canberra Urban Parks and Places (CUPPS) and Rod Baxter, ACTPLA Project Officer for the Woden Town Centre made presentations on their respective roles and responsibilities in relation to our public places, parks, ovals and open spaces, giving us examples of strategic plans of management regarding such matters as graffiti and memorials, and how Canberra Urban Parks undertakes social surveys about our public places and how they ‘bench mark’ their performance in relation to maintaining our public places.[teaserbreak]
Considerable discussion followed about Eddison Park and it’s pond, dying trees in Woden Town Square and other public places, abuse of verges and open spaces by builders etc, lack of oval maintenance, and what seems to be a strategy of management by responding to complaints about dying trees etc instead of a strategy of regularly maintaining these public assets. The issue of managing contractors who manage our public parks and places was also discussed. A water saving study being undertaken by CSIRO for CUPPS was also explained.
Our Council sincerely thanks these officers for giving us the presentations and increasing our understanding of who is responsible for what, and how their management strategies work and are reviewed. We encourage readers who are interested in these matters to contact Urban Parks and Places on 62072500 or log onto www.parksandplaces.act.gov.au
At our July public forum we will be discussing Woden’s cultural and community facilities as measured against the recently released Canberra Social Plan. Our special guests will be Dawn Casey, Chair, ACT Cultural Council and recently appointed member to the Community Inclusion Board, and Robin Brown, President of the ACT Council of Social Service and recently appointed member to the Community Inclusion Board. We hope to see many of you at that meeting on 7 July, in the Orpheus Room upstairs at the Hellenic Club, 7.30pm.