Source: Northern Territory Police and Fire Services
Eight new mowers will be added to the city’s mowing teams.
The ACT Government is investing in essential city services to support new recycling infrastructure and Canberra’s growing horticultural maintenance needs.
The ACT and Australian Governments will jointly fund the construction of a new recycling facility for Canberra.
It will be built on the same Hume site that was extensively damaged by fire in December 2022, as well as on the adjoining block.
The facility will feature new technology to expand capacity to sort and process glass, plastic, paper and cardboard.
This will increase resource recovery by:
- creating higher-quality recycled products
- reducing the amount of waste ending up in landfill.
Funding will allow work to begin, with a contract expected to be awarded in mid‑2024.
New community infrastructure and maintenance
The 2024-25 ACT Budget will support new and upgraded community facilities and infrastructure across the city.
The investment will deliver new toilets at Evatt Shops and Ruth Park Playground in Coombs, an upgraded toilet at Mawson Shops, and support the delivery of a new toilet near Bizant Street in Amaroo as part of the Yerrabi Pond Upgrade.
Budget funding will drive renewal of the city’s playgrounds and skateparks, including safety improvement works, mulch and rubber soft fall top ups, and a program of regular audits and inspections.
The Government will respond to community feedback regarding resources at ACT libraries. There will be new portable phone chargers and more power boards and charging stations, in addition to improving building security.
Other initiatives include funding for:
- master planning of upgrades to the Mugga Lane and Hume Resource Management Centres
- upgrades to dams
- further security upgrades.
Funding will allow work to begin, with a contract expected to be awarded in mid‑2024.
FOGO pilot expanded
Canberra’s Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) pilot program will be expanded.
This will generate useful information on how households in different types of multi-unit developments use the service.
The pilot currently services 5,300 households in Belconnen, Bruce, Cook and Macquarie.
An additional 1,150 units will be added, increasing the pilot by more than 20 per cent.
Mowing and horticulture maintenance
The combination of unpredictable weather and a growing city have increased demands on those taking care of Canberra’s grass, trees, weeds and gardens.
Through this Budget a temporarily expanded city maintenance crew will become permanent.
The expansion aimed to respond to short-term pressures resulting from weather conditions. With these pressures continuing, the Government is reinforcing resources in the city’s mowing, in-house traffic management and tree management teams.
Ten full-time positions and eight new mowers will be added to the city’s mowing teams.
In the low season, mowing crews will help with horticultural work across the city, including weeding, road edging and maintenance.
The Budget will also fund the continuation of a 10-person in-house traffic management crew. This crew provides traffic management control for Canberra’s mowing, litter picking, weed control and tree maintenance teams.
Their work has helped increase the safety of roadside workers. It has also helped reduce inconvenience for both workers and road and path users during maintenance activities.
The ACT Government has exceeded its target of planting 54,000 trees across the ACT from 2021 to 2024.
Forecasts predict over 60,000 new trees will be added to the city’s tree canopy during this period.
Staff will continue to be funded to care for Canberra’s trees and continue planting more trees in an increasingly sophisticated way, drawing from Connecting Nature Connecting People initiative and other research and insights.
Budget investment over four years will continue support for volunteer park care groups to nurture and restore local parks and nature reserves, with a particular focus on weed management in the first year.
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