The following formal submission have been made public
Submitter: Murrray UPTONRaising of London Circuit
RAISING LONDON CIRCUIT.
The proposed construction of an unnecessary hill in the middle of London Circuit in order to form a new, traffic-lighted, four-way intersection with Commonwealth Avenue is the greatest folly ever foisted on Canberra since the closure of Griffin’s Ainslie Avenue vista. This incredible hill certainly does not “respect environmental values or reflect national concerns with the sustainability of Australia’s urban areas”; one of the NCA’s ‘key matters of national significance’
There is not a single valid engineering or planning reason for this proposal. It must be seen for what it is: a political move by the ACT Government to provide a means of getting “the light rail to Woden” on to an already heavily loaded Commonwealth Avenue, and furthermore to sell, for commercial and residential purposes, the land currently occupied by the cloverleaf road arrangements.
The total destruction of the existing perfectly sound, well used, and efficient cloverleaf road system at this intersection is incomprehensible. It defies logic. It will also destroy a pleasant open area at the southern entry to Civic and cause unnecessary densification and congestion to the area.
It must be noted, and taken into account, that no sound Business Case has yet been made for this “light rail to Woden” project. When express electric buses are known to be both quicker and more economical the project may well collapse, leaving the City with an extremely expensive mess to repair.
In the National Capital Plan the NCA has noted that “great care has been taken to maintain a quality and standard of development appropriate to Australia’s capital” at each stage of its growth. This project fails to “maintain any quality or standard of development appropriate to the City” and also fails to “ensure that the physical setting of the National Capital and the quality of its buildings and public spaces are befitting of the National Capital”.
The addition of a completely new, traffic-lighted, intersection into an already overloaded Commonwealth Avenue is at odds with one of the key elements of the Griffins’ formally adopted plan for Canberra. It seriously interferes with the flow of traffic along one of Canberra’s main arterial avenues and certainly does not “conserve and enhance the landscape features which give the National Capital its character and setting, and which contribute to the integration of natural and urban environments” as is required by the National Capital Plan.
The document, Raising London Circuit by bd infrastructure pty ltd, is seriously flawed. It is clearly written to support the ACT Government's political agenda and fails to deal with the matter in a fair and even manner. It is interesting to note that the community survey [4.6.2.] in August 2021 was distributed to 5000 people but received only 228 responses! This hardly represents “accurately reflecting community views”.
These works are utterly “inconsistent with the National Capital Plan” and the National Capital Authority should therefore recommend to the Minister that the proposed works be not approved as they are “not considered desirable to maintain or enhance the character of the National Capital
The proposed construction of an unnecessary hill in the middle of London Circuit in order to form a new, traffic-lighted, four-way intersection with Commonwealth Avenue is the greatest folly ever foisted on Canberra since the closure of Griffin’s Ainslie Avenue vista. This incredible hill certainly does not “respect environmental values or reflect national concerns with the sustainability of Australia’s urban areas”; one of the NCA’s ‘key matters of national significance’
There is not a single valid engineering or planning reason for this proposal. It must be seen for what it is: a political move by the ACT Government to provide a means of getting “the light rail to Woden” on to an already heavily loaded Commonwealth Avenue, and furthermore to sell, for commercial and residential purposes, the land currently occupied by the cloverleaf road arrangements.
The total destruction of the existing perfectly sound, well used, and efficient cloverleaf road system at this intersection is incomprehensible. It defies logic. It will also destroy a pleasant open area at the southern entry to Civic and cause unnecessary densification and congestion to the area.
It must be noted, and taken into account, that no sound Business Case has yet been made for this “light rail to Woden” project. When express electric buses are known to be both quicker and more economical the project may well collapse, leaving the City with an extremely expensive mess to repair.
In the National Capital Plan the NCA has noted that “great care has been taken to maintain a quality and standard of development appropriate to Australia’s capital” at each stage of its growth. This project fails to “maintain any quality or standard of development appropriate to the City” and also fails to “ensure that the physical setting of the National Capital and the quality of its buildings and public spaces are befitting of the National Capital”.
The addition of a completely new, traffic-lighted, intersection into an already overloaded Commonwealth Avenue is at odds with one of the key elements of the Griffins’ formally adopted plan for Canberra. It seriously interferes with the flow of traffic along one of Canberra’s main arterial avenues and certainly does not “conserve and enhance the landscape features which give the National Capital its character and setting, and which contribute to the integration of natural and urban environments” as is required by the National Capital Plan.
The document, Raising London Circuit by bd infrastructure pty ltd, is seriously flawed. It is clearly written to support the ACT Government's political agenda and fails to deal with the matter in a fair and even manner. It is interesting to note that the community survey [4.6.2.] in August 2021 was distributed to 5000 people but received only 228 responses! This hardly represents “accurately reflecting community views”.
These works are utterly “inconsistent with the National Capital Plan” and the National Capital Authority should therefore recommend to the Minister that the proposed works be not approved as they are “not considered desirable to maintain or enhance the character of the National Capital