16 July 2015

Why Higgins is the ideal site for a West Belconnen community hub

| Vanessa Jones
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A new childcare facility for up to 122 children is being proposed for a vacant block near Kippax.

This block is located adjacent to Southern Cross Drive and accessible from Hardwick Crescent. Instead of building a facility near busy roads, perhaps the old Higgins school site, next to the Higgins oval, would be more suitable?

The Higgins site would have less traffic and air pollution for young children. And while it would be good to have a new childcare facility in the Kippax area, I’d prefer it to be built at the Higgins site, which is up for development right now.

Why? For one, the Higgins site could have a pool-gym combination and medical-radiology-dental centre next to the childcare centre.We could have a mix of CISAC and the Ginninderra Medical Centre in Higgins, as well as a pool, gym and medical facilities.

This would also save traffic from West Belconnen to Belconnen and help non driving locals, plus it’d help all the school kids at KSS with swimming. In addition, if Riverview is built, then its 30,000 residents could use the facilities at Higgins.

The hub might also reinvigorate the Higgins local shops. Would you like the Higgins shops to be more dynamic? Some busy and useful community buildings at the former Higgins school site would go a long way to supporting local retailers.

We could call the site the “Brindabella Community Hub” or something referencing the Brindabellas, a feature of West Belconnen. We do need a services centre for the community, with maximum services possible, and we could have it link in with Higgins shops, with a rain protected walkway. Link the Higgins shops and a Higgins community hub together, so residents in Higgins and in West Belconnen can get the maximum services possible.

It will save an enormous amount of traffic going to Belconnen from West Belconnen, and it would make Higgins and Kippax a focal point of West Belconnen, with KSS school in the middle of all those services.

And when a childcare centre is built, build it next to a green grass oval, not close to a busy road. We could have other pieces of infrastructure built where they want to build a childcare centre at Kippax, next to a busy road, but why a childcare centre?

What do you think?

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Getting away from Kippax is a good idea, for traffic reasons as you already suggested. The vacant lot on Fullagar Crescent is just sitting there growing weeds, and is screaming for a revamp. There are bus stops conveniently located all along that road.

Others have already petitioned for what you have just written about: http://www.allhomes.com.au/news/nearly-150-bidders-vie-for-higgins-childcare-site-in-canberra-20160323-gnq2hy/

As long as it is a QUALITY day care centre that gets built and run, similar to that of the nearby Flynn Early Childhood Education Center, then I am all for this. The 2615 postcode seems to have few quality day care centre options at present, so I would imagine the new day care facility would get a lot of interest.

Great article, thanks for posting 🙂

Why does Higgins need to be the focal point of West Belconnen when there is the perfectly good Kippax group centre just down the road with plenty of room for expansion?

As for the pool, medical etc, think we have discussed this several times here and maybe in the Canberra Crimes, BUT all that stuff is located in the town centre where it belongs.

PS surprised you haven’t asked for a bus interchange too. Would be ironic if you did considering Higgins used to house the bus interchange for Belconnen, prior to Belconnen Mall opening.

Kippax had a pool. It failed. CISAC is 5km away.

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