The August 2008 Community Forum will be held at:

7.00pm, Tuesday 19 August 2008
Community Room, upstairs Belconnen Library
Chandler Street, Belconnen

(Note the earlier start time. The BCC Committee has agreed to trial starting our meetings at 7pm from now on.)

Purdon Associates and Maunsell have been engaged by ACTPLA to prepare a Concept Plan for that part of the future suburb of Lawson which is controlled by the Territory.

Note that this excludes the Naval Station and all land in Lawson controlled by the Department of Defence.

The consultants will be giving a presentation on the current status of the project. However, they are keen to emphasize that the whole process is at a very early stage, and that no preferred outcomes have yet been determined.

The July 2008 Community Forum will be held at:

7.30pm, Tuesday 22 July 2008
Meeting Room 2, Belconnen Community Centre
26 Chandler Street, Belconnen
(NOTE changed date and location)

GHD Pty Ltd has been engaged by the ACT Government to undertake the community consultation process on the future use of eight former school sites.

The eight former school sites (now termed "community sites") are Cook, Weston Creek, Melrose (Chifley), Village Creek (Kambah), North Curtin, Holt, Mount Neighbour (Kambah) and Rivett.

The Belconnen Community Council has asked GHD to come to its July meeting in order to gather feedback from Belconnen residents about uses for the Holt and Cook community sites.

The June 2008 Community Forum will be held at:

7.30pm, Tuesday 17 June 2008
Community Room, upstairs Belconnen Library
Chandler Street, Belconnen

The Ginninderra Catchment Group helps communities work in partnership with government, business and other non-government organisations to protect the rural and urban landscape of the Ginninderra Creek Catchment.

The Catchment itself includes Gungahlin, Belconnen and a region of NSW, covering approximately 32,000 hectares. The ultimate goal of the Ginninderra Catchment Group is to balance resource utilisation and conservation within the catchment, thus making sure that Canberra rivers and lakes remain healthy and diverse aquatic ecosystems which we can all enjoy.

The May 2008 Community Forum will be held at:

7.30pm, Tuesday 20 May 2008
Community Room, upstairs Belconnen Library
Chandler Street, Belconnen

The ACT Government announced plans as part of the FY2008/09 budget to provide regional community hubs and neighbourhood halls on the former school sites.

Most significantly for Belconnen, Cook Primary School will be converted to an Arts Hub, and neighbourhood halls will be made available for community hire at Cook, Hall, and Holt.

The Keep Australia Beautiful ACT Sustainable Cities Awards help all ACT residents to identify, acknowledge and
promote practical, local environmental initiatives that help move the ACT towards sustainability.

This year's Awards program was officially launched on 8 May 2008 by John Hargreaves MLA, Minister for Territory and Municipal Services. Awards will be given in the categories of Community Pride, Packaging Recycling, Energy Conservation, Water Conservation, Resource Conservation, Protection of the Environment, Sustainable Buildings and Gardens, Sustainable Transport and Sustainable Schools.

The April 2008 Community Forum will be held at:

7.00pm, Tuesday 15 April 2008
Community Room, upstairs Belconnen Library
Chandler Street, Belconnen

Please note the start time of 7:00pm. The earlier start time is to allow proper coverage of two very important topics, the Belconnen Arts Centre and the development of the replacement Belconnen Bus Interchange.

Both topics at this April meeting are very important to the future of Belconnen. However, since they are quite different topics, we will be running them as self-contained meetings. This way, people who only wish to attend one of the two presentations can do so.

The March 2008 Community Forum will be held at:

7.30pm, Tuesday 18 March 2008
Community Room, upstairs Belconnen Library
Chandler Street, Belconnen

As regular Belconnen Community Council attendees are probably aware, in late 2006 there was a push to set up a BCC subcommittee which would look at how best to support the need of Belconnen region artists. This subcommittee was called the Belconnen and Northern Arts Network ACT, or BANANA.

Unfortunately, after a strong start the committee experienced some difficulties and has not met in some time.

The February 2008 Belconnen Community Forum will be held at:

7.30pm, Tuesday 19 February 2008
Community Room, upstairs Belconnen Library
Chandler Street, Belconnen

The BCC hopes that everyone has had a relaxing and enjoyable Christmas and New Year Break!

To kick off our regular monthly forums for this year, we will be discussing the concept of Men's Sheds and how they can improve male mental health and reduce social isolation.

As well as a general introduction to Men's Sheds, the forum will examine the need for a Men's Shed in Belconnen, and how community groups in Belconnen can work together to get a Men's Shed established.

The Belconnen Community Council welcomes all Belconnen residents and other interested parties to join us for our the Christmas party, which will be held at:

7.30 pm, Tuesday 18 December 2007
Community Room, upstairs Belconnen Library
Chandler Street, Belconnen

There will be light refreshments and drinks available. Come and discuss the exciting future of Belconnen -- such as the forthcoming Arts Centre, the foreshore redevelopment, and the West Belconnen P-10 school.

Hope to see you all there!