5 October 2016

Barr responds on Oaks Estate

5 October 2016 | Charlotte

Chief Minister Andrew Barr says his Government has provided unprecedented access to representatives of the Oaks Estate community and has taken action to address some specific issues of concern to residents.

Every independent and minor party in Mr Barr’s electorate of Kurrajong, which takes in the suburb of Oaks Estate, has today pledged a series of commitments for the suburb given what they describe as government neglect.

Mr Barr this morning acknowledged that Oaks Estate was a unique community that did need a level of government attention.

“There are challenges in terms of service delivery given the size of the population, so some issues were able to easily be resolved and have been, others, you know, the system of prioritising upgrades to intersections or to pedestrian crossing or the like, there will be a hundred other intersections that have more people, more demand, more risk, but, nonetheless, we were able to address some specific issues at Oaks estate,” he said.

The ACT Government had worked with the Federal Government on some initiatives, he added.

“I think it’s unfair to say there’s been no attention paid to the area, we have had a number of meetings with residents and the Oaks Estate Progress Association over the last two years, in fact the entire cabinet met them, which I think would be unprecedented for any area of Canberra, for one suburb, to have the entire cabinet meet to discuss their various issues,” Mr Barr said.

“You also have to look at the needs of 400,000 people, and so we balance those things, but there have been initiatives in Oaks Estate, there will continue to be into the future, there’s been heritage work, planning work, police and road safety work, transport work, local government amenity, toilet facilities, playground upgrades, those sorts of things have all occurred.

“There’s more people who live on my street than live in Oaks Estate, so you’ve got to balance things.”

Mr Barr’s office provided the following list of ACT Government actions in relation to Oaks Estate since an April 2015 meeting between stakeholders and government.

· Members of the ACT Policing Crime Reduction Unit (CRU) met with the OEPA on 9 July 2015 to discuss crime and safety. CRU provided information about personal safety, Crime Stoppers, and provided fridge magnets with contact numbers for ACT Policing.
· CRU spoke with Mr Michael Starling, President, OEPA on 12 August 2015 about concerns of suspected criminal behaviour in Oaks Estate.
· ACT Policing continue to liaise with the OEPA and have agreed to attend future OEPA meetings if invited.
· ACT Policing conducted an audit on its activities within Oaks Estate, which, based on year-to-date averages, showed a similar level of traffic infringement notices issued in 2015 and 2016, and a small increase in traffic targeting and crime targeting activities.
· ACT Policing will continue patrols of Oaks Estate, including patrols to address speeding and anti-social driving.
· The Justice and Community Safety Directorate is working with Access Canberra to have new sites for mobile speed cameras in Oaks Estate up and running shortly (once baseline speed surveys are conducted).
· Minister Berry provided a contact and information on the services the St Vincent de Paul Society provides under the Samaritan Services Program in Oaks Estate.
· QCity confirmed it does run a normal timetable into Canberra during NSW school holidays.
· Railway Street in Oaks Estate has moved up in the warrant system since 2013 by 104 places and it currently ranks 98 in priority for detailed investigation in relation to local area traffic management.
· Roads ACT has completed an investigation of Railway Street looking at traffic volume and speed data, crash history and percentage of heavy vehicles, as well as surrounding land use such as the presence of shops or schools. The assessment indicated that Railway Street carries approximately 4,100 vehicles per day travelling at an average speed of around 54 km/h.
· An analysis of crash records at the Railway Street and McEwan Avenue intersection revealed there has been one reported crash at this location in the last seven years (2009-2015), with a total of seven crashes between Oaks Estate Road and McEwen Avenue. These results show Railway Street performs better compared with other similar roads in the ACT, and is therefore a lower priority for traffic management measures
· In 2015 Roads ACT completed an investigation at the intersection of McEwen Avenue and Railway Street intersection, with no indication that a pedestrian crossing is needed. Roads ACT will undertake a new survey at this location after school holidays to assess any changes to the pedestrian requirements.
· The Environment and Planning Directorate is reviewing Draft Variation to the Territory Plan No. 328 (DV328) for the Oaks Estate Precinct Map and Code in light of the submissions received through public consultation in early 2015. DV328 aims to protect the existing character of Oaks Estate by limiting building heights in the residential area, limiting the area that can be taken up by buildings and introducing setbacks to protect the heritage character of Robertson House.
· The draft variation has interim effect, which means development will have to comply with the provisions of the current Territory Plan and the provisions of DV328, with the more onerous provision taking precedence.
· There are no plans to release new blocks in Oaks Estate before the Queanbeyan sewerage works are upgraded, still several years away.
· The Heritage Council is currently considering if the Oaks Estate Precinct meets the threshold for heritage registration under the Heritage Act 2004. If the Council decides to register the Oaks Estate Precinct, heritage guidelines will be developed to protect the identified heritage values of the precinct.
· The Planning and Land Authority has received a development application for 30 units on block 25 section 3 Oaks Estate. This application is being assessed in accordance with the requirements of the Planning and Development Act 2007.
· The Heritage Council has endorsed a Conservation Management Plan (CMP) for Robertson House. This includes guidance on opportunities for public access, and presents further opportunity to build on the Oaks Estate community’s involvement in the Canberra and Region Heritage Festival, held in April each year.
· The Government has decided not to move the Railway Museum in Kingston to Oaks Estate because it would require significant funding to relocate and accommodate the collection of locomotives, carriages and other railway related memorabilia, additional railway tracks and associated infrastructure such as sheds, workshops and parking areas. In addition, the operational heavy rail facilities adjacent to Railway Street are on the NSW side of the border and the ACT has no jurisdiction over this land, preventing a direct land grant.

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JC12:14 pm 11 Oct 16

Thanks for making my point for me. ACTION has $96m in Community Service Obligation funding, that they pour down the drain for 49 FREE City Loop buses each weekday in the city, that carry 6 passengers each to swan across the city and see their mates for lunch. But the poorest and most disadvantaged suburb gets ZERO ACTION buses.

It does however get money to pay for them to get QCity buses, which run more frequently and to more destinations in Canberra than most Canberra suburbs get. So your point?

And other areas and people of disadvantage in the ACT get taxi subsidies if they cannot get buses.

wildturkeycanoe7:04 am 10 Oct 16

WildTurkey, JC, and Maya123:
Do you really think that public transport arrangements should be the SAME, or WORSE, for the poorest and most disadvantaged suburb in the ACT?

Or, do you think the ACT Govt should do more than zero for a suburb of 55% public housing and functional unemployment close to 50%, and whose rates have tripled in the last decade?

ACTION get $96m in Community Service Obligation funding from the ‘gubmint and I cannot think of a community they are more obliged to service.

How about Uriarra, Tidbinbilla and Tharwa? I guess these folks pay rates too and they don’t even get a bus service.
As for your gripe about the rates, I don’t think the 55% that live in public housing pay any rates and over 60% are renters, so how can you argue about them being cheated on this? Have not their land values also much improved, which reflects as increased rates the same way it does for all home owners in the A.C.T?
I can’t understand why these “disadvantaged” need to have all the requested services at their doorstep. They can access them the same way all Canberrans do by simply walking, albeit just a few hundred meters further than us. As pointed out, there are public transport services at their doorstep, just not as many. Maybe this is because there just isn’t the demand required to make it feasible or cost effective. Running another ten buses out there, with a couple of passengers if any at all is just a dumb idea.
Living out there is a choice, or in the case of many, a result of poor choices made earlier in their lives. Perhaps the relative isolation of Oaks Estate is an incentive to change the way they live and if they want to be in the city, do something about it instead of whinging for more, more, more.

JC2:10 pm 08 Oct 16

Maya123 said :

JC said :

I live in suburban ACT and the walk to my closest bus stop is 900m. Now yes the government, and not Action wants people to be within a 500m walk, but you quote the figure of 95% which means there are 5% that are not. I am one, clearly parts of Oaks Estate are too. As for the fare, a cash ticket on Action is $4.70 though yes with transfer, so that means Oaks Estate it is actually cheaper than what other Canberra residents pay. Though with a myway 30c more.

Why would someone pay cash on a bus when My Way fares are much cheaper? Nearly everyone on buses swipes the My Way card these days and it’s rare for someone to pay cash. For those over 60 yrs, they can get a seniors card which is even cheaper. My last peak fare was $1.41 and off-peak fare 78cents. Those fares are transferable within 1.5hrs.

End of the day not relevant anyway. The cash fare from Oaks Estate is much the same as a single on MyWay.

JC2:09 pm 08 Oct 16

WildTurkey, JC, and Maya123:
Do you really think that public transport arrangements should be the SAME, or WORSE, for the poorest and most disadvantaged suburb in the ACT?

Or, do you think the ACT Govt should do more than zero for a suburb of 55% public housing and functional unemployment close to 50%, and whose rates have tripled in the last decade?

ACTION get $96m in Community Service Obligation funding from the ‘gubmint and I cannot think of a community they are more obliged to service.

I don’t think public housing should be at Oak Estate or anywhere that is so ‘isolated’ from the rest of the territory. Living in Oaks Estate should be a choice.

As for the government and Community Service Obligation funding, I am willing to bet my left one that the ACT government is paying QCity transit for every trip made by an Oaks Estate resident. Just look at the fares, they essentially match the fares in the rest of the ACT, whereas if you are a non Oak Estate resident you are paying significantly more for the same trip from the same stop. So to me the ACT government is fulfilling their obligation to provide public transport at the same cost as elsewhere, it is however ‘contracted’ out to Qcity rather than on Action buses, where I think you will agree the numbers for a service to Oaks Estate wouldn’t add up. Or do numbers only need to add up for light rail?

And as mentioned above Oak Estate residents have a better bus service in terms of frequency and destinations than what I do living in suburban ACT. So

dloudon1:21 pm 08 Oct 16

Lurker2913 said :

The territory government should compulsory acquire all the properties in Oaks Estate, relocate the residents to other parts of the territory and level the suburb. I believe the suburbs geographical location was an intentional political decision which was wrong. We think we are progressive but let stuff like this continue.

Oaks Estate is older than Canberra and has plenty of natural advantages.

If light rail eventually goes to Queanbeyan (which it does it many plans), using the existing railways would be a good option for the alignment. Oaks Estate could be enhanced by integrated transit oriented development on the ACT side of the border.

In the mean time there needs to be better integration with Queanbeyan (although I’m not sure what that would look like). If the ACT can negotiate a good outcome with Yass Valley council for the part of the West Belconnen development that will be in NSW, surely they can do the same for Oaks Estate.

Maya12310:39 am 08 Oct 16

JC said :

I live in suburban ACT and the walk to my closest bus stop is 900m. Now yes the government, and not Action wants people to be within a 500m walk, but you quote the figure of 95% which means there are 5% that are not. I am one, clearly parts of Oaks Estate are too. As for the fare, a cash ticket on Action is $4.70 though yes with transfer, so that means Oaks Estate it is actually cheaper than what other Canberra residents pay. Though with a myway 30c more.

Why would someone pay cash on a bus when My Way fares are much cheaper? Nearly everyone on buses swipes the My Way card these days and it’s rare for someone to pay cash. For those over 60 yrs, they can get a seniors card which is even cheaper. My last peak fare was $1.41 and off-peak fare 78cents. Those fares are transferable within 1.5hrs.

torana689:14 am 08 Oct 16

Lurker2913 said :

………………………. I believe the suburbs geographical location was an intentional political decision which was wrong. We think we are progressive but let stuff like this continue.

I said “Give it back” because it was part of Queanbeyan originally until the ACT border was drawn up.

Lurker29138:49 pm 07 Oct 16

The territory government should compulsory acquire all the properties in Oaks Estate, relocate the residents to other parts of the territory and level the suburb. I believe the suburbs geographical location was an intentional political decision which was wrong. We think we are progressive but let stuff like this continue.

JC7:08 pm 07 Oct 16

wildturkeycanoe said :

…That is incorrect. Oaks Estate residents can get a bus to Civic over 40 times a day, they just need to walk a short distance to the nearest stop… All Canberrans also have to walk a distance to catch a bus unless they have a stop directly outside their home, this is not a unique hurdle to that area.

Sorry wildturkey, but you’re off-mark. (1) It’s not a “short” distance. Residents have to walk 1 km to the Q-city stop at Uriarra Rd. (2) “All Canberrans have to walk…” – ACTION has a rule that 95% of residents are 500m from a bus stop. Why should a community with so much disadvantage and disability be forced to walk double that distance to catch a private NSW bus, but everyone else is gifted ACT-funded buses to their doorstep? (3) There’s not 40 Q-city buses a day, there’s 20. (4) the prices are now $2.60 for Q-city, which is near the same for ACTION.

I live in suburban ACT and the walk to my closest bus stop is 900m. Now yes the government, and not Action wants people to be within a 500m walk, but you quote the figure of 95% which means there are 5% that are not. I am one, clearly parts of Oaks Estate are too. As for the fare, a cash ticket on Action is $4.70 though yes with transfer, so that means Oaks Estate it is actually cheaper than what other Canberra residents pay. Though with a myway 30c more.

And yeah not 40 services a day to Civic, but about 40 a day to the ACT, half to Woden and half to Civic. Which is a better service than most of the ACT actually.

dungfungus said :

These are services by Q City and according to their transit fare page, there appears to be no return journey available from anywhere in the ACT to Oaks Estate.

Maybe there is an assumption that the travellers will be detained in Civic so they won’t need a return trip.

Half right, there is no return fare, there are return services. Just means Oaks Estate residents need to pay two fares, just like what would happen in the ACT.

So seems they don’t have it too bad afterall.

torana686:37 pm 07 Oct 16

Why not return Oakes Estate to NSW ? ACT has no interest in it or anyone who lives there.

wildturkeycanoe11:00 am 07 Oct 16

TuggLife said :

ignores the root of the problem: if you’re a recently released prisoner, put into public housing in Oaks Estate, how are you supposed to get about, buy food and entertain yourself, if you can’t physically access 99% of the territory’s infrastructure?

To give a specific, unrelated example, if you have a baby in Oaks Estate and have no access to transport, how are you supposed to attend maternal and child health clinics given that you can’t access New South Wales clinics with an ACT address? You end up missing the ACT-based clinics, missing vaccinations and missing opportunities for Early Intervention.

To address the first three issues,

“get about” – How about like the rest of the world? Firstly, you have two feet, so you can either walk or ride a pushbike. There is a bus service going through Oaks Estate, which rarely gets a mention in this one sided argument, which can take you firstly to Queanbeyan and then onward to Canberra. It isn’t just Oaks Estate that has poor public transport, there are some journeys in Canberra that can take you up to two hours to reach your desired destination using Action services.
If you can save up and have a license, perhaps you can buy a motorcycle or car like most ordinary folks. The only thing stopping these people is their own lack of initiative.

“buy food” – There is a shopping center a mere 2km away, reachable by either foot, public transport or vehicle. This is the same distance as the local shops are from my Canberra suburban house. Why do they need something closer than people in Canberra have?

“entertain yourself” – Seriously? It is now the government’s responsibility to keep us entertained? The Oaks Estate area has nothing less than most Canberra suburbs in terms of things to do. Only a short distance away is the entire city of Queanbeyan, with all of its entertainment on offer. There is a river only a stone’s throw away and a local park. What exactly do they want, an indoor cricket center, a cinema, ice skating arena or perhaps a brothel?
Why do the residents of Oaks Estate seem to think the A.C.T/N.S.W border is a razor wire fence guarded by alsatians being led by armed soldiers? It is effectively just another suburb of Queanbeyan that happens to be on the other side of the border. When the West Macgregor project gets underway and they expand into N.S.W, do you think the Yass Shire Council is going to provide the same things that the Oaks Estate residents want, or will the New South Welshmen residents simply accept the fact that they need to go into the Kippax Center for their daily needs?

Now, the whole baby thing is really a desperate plea for attention. There are probably tens of thousands of parents in Australia who live remotely, or even in cities, that have to travel a certain distance to get health services. How difficult is it to organize a day out with baby, on a public bus, to go into the city and attend a scheduled appointment? If you haven’t got enough money for a concessional bus fare, with the additional family benefits available today, then there are deeper concerns than just meeting regular appointments, but nothing that is exclusively the fault of living in Oaks Estate.

People are making out that this is a derelict shanty town, void of any forms of civilization. But they have a bottle shop! Obviously the demand was there, showing what the Oaks Estate residents felt was the most important need.
Look at Collector, up on the road to Sydney. It has a population just larger than Oaks Estate but they don’t even have a local store. They get two buses a day to take them to the nearest shopping complex. You can get from Oaks Estate to Canberra City in roughly an hour and there are well over forty services a day! All they have to do is get off their backsides and walk to the bus stop.
Please, it isn’t that hard to live in a place that has all this going for it. If you don’t like it, then move. If you are stuck there because of circumstance, I’d put money on it being a decision made previously in life that led to that happening. You reap what you sow.

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