On 15 September 2018   /   Minutes   /   Leave a comment

GCC Community Meeting

8 August 2018

Gungahlin Club

6:30 – 8:30 pm

Chair: Peter Elford (President).

Attendees: see attendance log

Agenda Item 1: Evoenergy

Julianne, Customer Engagement, Evoenergy, briefed the meeting on the power outage that occurred at 8:00 last night.  All power was restored 9:30 pm however works were ongoing to rectify the problem.  For now power should be restored and shouldn’t be any further outage.

When outage first occurs information go to Facebook and online to find information. You can also call the emergency faults number.  Julianne highlighted that Evoenergy was spending $4M in the Gungahlin network for ongoing maintenance and new investment.  Juliance asked the meeting to please participate in customer engagement.

Questions from the floor included:

  1.      Why did Bonner, Amaroo and Forde require so much work?  Will take question on notice, may also be result of rolling asset maintenance
  2.      What was the background on works on the feeder along Mirrabei Drive from Ngunnawal into town centre? Will take that question on notice.
  3.      When there is an outage do you share information on the radio – no
  4.      When there is an outage do you share information do you share information via a SMS alert? – Not possible at this point in time, may be a future. An opt in approach may be preferred
  5.      An accident in Wanganeen street wiped out a large piece of infrastructure and required the use of multiple generators, is this normal?  Depends on the size, length of the outage.
  6.      What is driving the new investment – sometimes changes in zoning and large than expected development.  Network was not originally designed for two way flow (eg PV and batteries)
  7.      Why do the prices keep going up? Evoenergy merely provides the grid, not the electricity which makes up 30-40% of the bill. Evoenergy did not cause the latest round of price increases.
  8.      How does the Gungahlin grid’s performance compare with other town centres? Will take that question on notice
  9.      Is the infrastructure cost for rapid increase in urban density covered by developers? There can be customer contributions. Evoenergy strategy branch works with customers with specific needs to manage these situations
  10.  Does evoenergy provide power for light rail or is that capital metro? Will take that question on notice.
  11.  Is Evoenergy government owned and why did it split from ACTEWAGL? Last year ring fencing guidelines were introduced so it was decided to separate network from retail. It is still a joint venture but operate at arms distance.  This was a requirement from the Australian Energy Regulator

Agenda item 2: Mulligans flat

Jason Cummins from mulligans flat presented on  the proposed Visitor Centre to be located in Throsby. The sanctuary covers approximately 480 hectares and is now expanding behind Throsby to 1,100 hectares in size. Will need to clear rabbits, foxes and cats before can reintroduce native species in the expansion area.  They have also installed new signs in sanctuary and will release a self-guided walking tour app shortly.

Visitor centre to be built in Throsby based on the visions of the Best conservation centre in Australia.  It will in form a gateway to the site and include big entrance gateway, cafe, school groups, lab environment, nature play area, learning garden, water reuse design, and leaf shape in roof design.  Once complete is will also be the only public amenities located in Throsby. Plan to lodge Development Application in next couple of months and open the centre by the end of next year.

Questions from the floor included

  1.      Any there any solar panels? Getting advice on that at the moment
  2.      Are there any rock wallabies on site? No not a suitable habitat.
  3.      Location of active transport? Bike path right past site and bus stop 200 m away
  4.      Name of the site? Will be called Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary but may rename building.
  5.      ACT budget 1.6million and found partner to match this
  6.      Use of tracks within the sanctuary? Currently have 30-50k visitors per year and this will increase. Will be improvements to tracks and trails and potentially making pedestrian only and bike only tracks

Open forum

  1.      A Franklin resident reported a streetlight outage 29 June, have rung Access Canberra three times and there had been car crashes at the site.  Peter Elford noted that if it is highlighted to the ACT Government there is a risk to public safety it is more likely to get a response. He also suggested that  Member of the Legislative Assembly email addresses are readily available or 666 on Friday chief minister talkback
  2.      Request for update on air towers website – will take an action to follow up.
  3.      What is the GCC position on new bus network – has not not formally developed a view. Note some community concerns and encouraged everyone to respond depending on their ow individual circumstances. Individual contributions matter.
  4.      Request for update on the cinema – Developer is now impossible to contact but has until May 2019 to commence construction.

Minutes taken by Andrew Braddock

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