The ISCCC Annual General meeting held last week was an ideal opportunity to reflect on our achievements during 2013 and our aims for the year ahead.
You can find full details of our progress in implementing our strategic plan on our website.
One of our key challenges has been ensuring that individuals and community groups are not disadvantaged in their ability to influence community planning decisions compared with
better-resourced government departments and commercial organisations. We continued to advocate during the year for government funding, as promised in the 2012 ACT elections, to enhance community consultation in planning and hope this materialises in the 2014 ACT budget.
At year’s end we are anxiously awaiting the outcome of a number of government decisions which will impact on the inner south. These include paid parking arrangements for the parliamentary zone, Ministerial call in powers on heritage matters, the proposed heritage listing of Canberra, solutions to some of the transport issues besetting the inner south, and measures to address issues caused by exempt developments, to name but a few.
We continue to struggle to gain the attention of our Assembly members on local issues and we remain of the view that the size of the Assembly is simply too small to allow proper representation to government of residents’ concerns. However, during the year we have been well supported by MLAs Shane Rattenbury and Steve Doszpot and Gai Brodtmann, Federal Member for Canberra.
I was delighted to have been re-elected to chair the ISCCC for another 12 months, and congratulate the other successful candidates for membership of the Committee, details of which also available on our website.
On behalf of the ISCCC I wish you all the compliments of the season.
Gary Kent
Chair