Community Alliance Party

Norvan Vogt, Community Alliance Party candidate for Molonglo, says that the North Weston development is shaping up to be a medium density ghetto of medium density houses with few jobs and little in the way of public transport.

The Community Alliance Party has called for a halt to laissez-faire development like this, and shifting the focus to development that meets environmental, economic and social objectives. Mr Vogt says this translates, at the bare minimum, into providing all new suburbs with decent public transport at the heart.

Although the ACT Government says the site is not far from arterial roads and closer to central Canberra than other new housing developments, Mr Vogt’s extensive experience in alternative housing leads him to believe that the current proposal for North Weston is deeply flawed.

"Why would you place a new suburb away from any employment or town centres and nowhere near decent public transport? New suburbs without employment nearby is just a car-dependent commuter suburb," said Mr Vogt.

"All it will take is for another major spike in the price of fuel, and the residents of this new suburb will find their housing dream turn into a nightmare," he said.

"In the bigger picture, development also needs to respect the urban growth boundary wisely put in place to prevent the suburbs from sprawling too far," he said.

According to Mr Vogt, governments have got to stop making decisions in isolation. Housing and transport policies must be joined. Attempting to retro-fit public transport only after inappropriate housing development has been built is costly, inefficient, and very poor planning.

"The Community Alliance advocates thinking 100 years into the future when planning and building a new suburb. Otherwise we risk entrenching isolation, and leave future generations vulnerable" Mr Vogt said.

Contact: Norvan Vogt