The ACT Government is increasing the delivery of city services in Canberra suburbs, and will strengthen enforcement of key regulations, Minister for City Services Chris Steel has announced.
The ACT Government is delivering a 15% increase in street sweeping, increasing streetlight maintenance crews by 40%, and will begin planting over 400 additional new trees this Autumn, with green bins being collected across Canberra for the first time today.
“Canberrans are going to see cleaner streets, a quicker response to streetlight outages, more trees being planted and more waste collection services. Whether you live in Dunlop or Deakin our investments in city services benefit all Canberrans,” Minister Steel said.
Minister Steel said improved technology, revised crewing and a move to split-shifts means that crews are operating our fleet of street-sweepers for longer and with better results, while the delivery of streetlight maintenance through a new contract means streetlights are more efficient and more reliable.
“Canberra is a great place to live, but there are unfortunately some people who are consistently doing the wrong thing by the community, so alongside our investment in more city services we will create a new team to step up the enforcement of laws which make Canberra safe and liveable.
“Irresponsible dog owners, illegal dumping, tree damage, verge maintenance, moveable signs and the use of public land will be the focus of the new engagement and compliance program.
“The new compliance and engagement team will provide extra teeth for the existing licensing and compliance area, if you don’t do the right thing you are at risk of receiving an on the spot fine.”
Minister Steel said that over the next two months Transport Canberra and City services will recruit and train the new staff members, with the program ramping up to full operations in June 2019. The 6 member compliance team is in addition to Domestic Animal Services (which has already doubled in staff to 16) and is also in addition to the 4 member investigations team which deals with more complex regulatory compliance.
The increased focus on enforcement will be supported by a public engagement campaign to inform the community of the current focus area and further educate them on their responsibilities. However irresponsible dog owners will be consistently targeted by the new team.
“You will see the compliance team out and about for an initial six month period and we will extend the program if it is successful in improving community safety and amenity.”
These investments will be part of the Minister’s Statement of Priorities which will be tabled in the Legislative Assembly this week.
