City Services maintenance crew in Spence. Photo: Ian Bushnell.
Some might think it long overdue, but the ACT Budget has supported moves for permanent outdoor maintenance crews within City Services.
Next Tuesday’s Budget will commit $5.824 million towards a new “baseline” level of city maintenance, reinforcing resources in the mowing, in-house traffic management and tree management teams.
Ten full-time positions and eight additional mowers will be added to the mowing teams. In downtimes, mowing crews will assist with horticultural work across the city, including weeding, road edging and maintenance.
Funding will also allow the continuation of a 10-person in-house traffic management crew to support mowing, litter picking, weed control and tree maintenance teams.
This follows the announcement of $5.81 million over four years to establish a new crew to replace sections of concrete paths that are at the end-of-life and are trip hazards for pedestrians and runners, instead of hiring contractors.
This involves an additional 10 full-time positions and new equipment.
The crew will also construct new ramps, kerbs and missing sections of paths to eliminate impediments to those with limited mobility.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the goal was for City Services to be able to respond quickly to issues.
“So not only are we putting more resources in, but we are focusing on the areas that the community has identified through their feedback from things like Fix My Street to feedback to local members in each of the territory electorates,” he said.
City Services Minister Tara Cheyne said successive wet seasons and storm events had shown the need for more resources to stay on top of grass levels and general maintenance.
She said City Services had been relying on short-term injections to meet demand, but the new funding would give it permanent capability to respond to climate challenges.
“What this budget does is it provides that certainty of the new baseline of staffing right across the crews that we’ve got throughout Canberra to ensure that we’re delivering the services that Canberrans expect,” she said.
“We have directly responded to what both the community has told us and what we’ve learned from going out and speaking to the people on the ground.”
Ms Cheyne said the government was also investing in more equipment, such as two new articulated loaders to boost efficiency.
“Where we can make those smarter technology investments that assist our crews to be able to do their job, we will,” she said.
Ms Cheyne rejected suggestions that the government was responding to political pressure from the Canberra Liberals, who released a $100 million policy last year aimed at what it called Canberra’s “neglected suburbs“.
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