The BCC takes an active role in community consultation with government, commercial,
and community organisations in matters concerning Belconnen and its residents. We work hard to provide feedback and advice on how to make Belconnen better for all.
We’d like to hear your thoughts on the future of Lawson – what you like about Lawson, the improvements you want, and what shops, restaurants, and community uses you’d like to see at the Lawson Mixed-Use site.
Our survey can be found by clicking here.
The Belconnen Community Council wrote to Minister Steel regarding concerns about the traffic management arrangements at the intersection of Ibbott Lane and Lathlain Street in Belconnen. We highlighted safety and traffic flow issues at this highly trafficked intersection and emphasizes the need for short-term and long-term solutions for this intersection and the Belconnen Town Centre more generally.
Minister Steel’s response is below and included the following actions.
Roads ACT is presently reviewing the operation of traffic signals at these intersections to determine if any improvements can be made to traffic conditions in this general area in the short term. I have also asked Roads ACT to conduct a study to determine whether any feasible upgrade options to the road network and these intersections can be identified for future consideration.
We appreciate the Minister requesting this review and study, but we will continue to follow up on the progress of these and advocate for action on effective solutions that alleviate traffic congestion and enhance road safety.
As always we rely on you to provide us with information and issues from across the district. We are always looking for help to stay on top of the workload, so if you would like to get involved we’d love to hear from you. You can email us at [email protected] or [email protected] for more information.
Lachlan Butler
Chair
**We Want Your Voice! Take Our Community Survey**
Hey Belconnen community! 
Your opinions matter, and the Belconnen Community Council wants to hear from YOU! We’ve created a survey to gather your valuable insights and perspectives on how we can better serve our community.
Share Your Vision: Let us know what you see as the role of the Belconnen Community Council. Your input will shape our future initiatives and guide our decision-making process.
Meeting Preferences: We want to make our meetings as accessible and engaging as possible. Tell us how you would prefer we conduct our meetings. Your feedback will help us create an inclusive environment that encourages participation and collaboration.
Local Matters: What matters most to you in your local area? We’re eager to understand the issues that are important to our community members. Your responses will help us prioritize and advocate for the matters closest to your hearts.
Take the Survey: Click the link below to access the survey and make your voice heard. It only takes a few minutes, but your impact will be long-lasting!
https://docs.google.com/…/1FAIpQLSc4Sq1GaS2…/viewform…
Your opinions are crucial to our community’s growth and development. Let’s work together to create a vibrant and inclusive Belconnen that we can all be proud of! 
With the passage of the new Planning Act last week, the Belconnen Community Council was glad to see the inclusion of key amendments that we lobbied for. These amendments addressed our concerns about community consultation and pre-DA consultation. These changes prioritized the voices of our community in the planning process, and we are grateful for this significant step forward compared to the draft bill.
However, while we appreciate the amendments, we acknowledge that concerns remain regarding the outcomes-based system and how it will impact Belconnen residents. In this vein, we support the built-in review mechanism to evaluate the system’s effectiveness and the potential need for further reforms. The government should be proactive and consider a continuous evaluation and review process of the planning system. We believe in ensuring active community participation in shaping the planning outcomes that impact our neighborhoods.
Additionally, we are disappointed that governance arrangements were not prioritized from the beginning. However, we welcome the amendment requiring an independent review of the governance arrangements within 12 months of the Planning Act’s passage. This review should examine the effectiveness of the independent planning body and explore the potential of local design panels, both of which we advocated for in our submission on the draft Bill. These measures will contribute to a more inclusive and community-centric planning framework.
We express our gratitude to the ACT Government, the Opposition and all stakeholders involved for their efforts in addressing our concerns and taking meaningful steps towards creating a more consultative and inclusive planning framework.
However our work is not yet done, we will keep advocating for the best planning outcomes for our community and if you are interested in helping out, we would love to hear from you.
The BCC remains committed to advocating for genuine and transparent community engagement in planning, and for a fit-for-purpose territory plan, district strategy, and design guides that deliver for the Belconnen community while delivering the housing our city needs.
Together, let’s shape the future of our community! 
The 2022 Annual General Meeting of the Belconnen Community Council will be held via Zoom from 7.00 pm Tuesday 20 September 2022. Details:
We covered a lot of topics in our community meeting on Tuesday night!
Thank you to the team from the Suburban Land Agency who provided a presentation on the current plans for Lawson Stage 2, as well as the developments at Holt near the Caltex service station (Section 53), at Kippax, and at Belconnen Lakeshore.
A link to the meeting recording is below.
Other updates were:
– The William Hovell Drive Upgrade Development Application is now open for comment. Details of the project and links to the DA are here: https://www.cityservices.act.gov.au/…/william-hovell…
– The Umbagong Bridges ‘What We Heard’ Listening Report is out, reflecting key design changes arising from community consultation. More details here: https://drive.google.com/…/1juU8fCJmkyVj…/view…
– There is work currently being done in Emu Bank, Belconnen on drainage and garden beds, near the skate park.
– There is major drainage work being done in the Belconnen dog park.
– The waterfall in John Knight Park has been turned off for maintenance.
Broader consultation processes mentioned:
– Multicultural Recognition Act consultation: https://yoursayconversations.act.gov.au/multicultural… – there is an in-person session on Monday 27 June at 1-3pm at Nature Conservation House on Emu Bank.
– Better Regulation Report (both the long version and short summary version): https://www.cmtedd.act.gov.au/…/better-regulation…
– Discrimination Law Reform consultation: https://yoursayconversations.act.gov.au/discrimination…
The federal election has been run and won and congratulations to those who were successful in winning a seat in the 47th Parliament of Australia. I know the BCC Committee is looking forward to contributing to the conversation in the weeks ahead and we look forward to working respectfully and courteously with our federal representatives.
We’ve been busy since our May meeting providing input into the Combined Community Councils of the ACT discussion paper on the proposed changes to the Territory Planning process and the proposed Planning Bill. We’ve put together a Belconnen focussed submission and provided it for consideration to government as part of the broader consultation arrangements. In the main, we have supported the structures and proposals of the Canberra Planning Advisory Group (CPAG) and incorporated many of the features of the NSW Panel structures for the ACT. We are no longer just a city-state with a short term view of our place in the Australian community and it’s time we had a planning model that is designed for Canberra to flourish into the next century, rather than an after thought of self government. We will post the document to our website later this week and please take the time to have a look and provide any additional feedback.
We have updates this month from SLA on Lawson Stage 2 and I’m hoping they will hang around for our first item of General Business relating to the proposed sale of the carpark adjacent to the Service Station at Holt (aka Block 5 Section 53) for approximately 30 dwellings (which will include 5 affordable housing dwellings). Local residents received a letterbox drop last week from the SLA indicating the intention to put this block out for tender by 30 June 2022, consistent with the opportunities outlined in the Kippax Group Centre Master Plan.
With new vision comes new opportunities for us to expand our presence in the community and beyond, and I’m delighted to announce that our most recent addition to the BCC Committee, Mr Lachlan Butler, has expressed his interest in standing for the position of Chair at our next AGM. At a recent Committee meeting, Lachlan was endorsed and supported by committee members to start a buddying role with me to learn the ropes and become more familiar with the functions and responsibilities that go with being Chair of this great Council. I’m looking forward to helping Lachlan become more involved in the weeks ahead and I hope you’ll join me in thanking Lachlan for his commitment to step up to the next level.
As always, we look to you for new ideas and thinking. Please reach out if you’d like to help our sub committees in the months ahead as we maintain our Belconnen district as “The Jewel in Canberra’s Crown”.
Glen Hyde
Chair
Belconnen Community Council
21 June 2022
19 April 2022, 7pm
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87862117953
AGENDA
7pm Welcome
7.05pm Chair’s Report
7.15pm MLA’s update
7.30pm PEET University of Canberra Estate – For information
8pm Belconnen Premier Inn Redevelopment – Part of pre-DA community consultation
8.30pm General business
9pm Close
Next meeting: 7pm Tuesday 17 May 2022, online via Zoom
April has presented us with some interesting options based on the calling of the Federal election. Senator Seselja’s two major announcements for this district while welcome, aren’t front and centre of people’s thinking at the moment. The first announcement about removing blockers for release of more land to be made available for housing centred on the Ginninderra Project (formerly the Ginninderra Field Station), in our view misses the mark about availability and affordability. The major blocker is the lack of progress to bring together the parties (CSIRO, ACT Government and the National Capital Authority) to develop agreements on how the project moves forward from a plan on a page to a going concern. Once this occurs (and it won’t happen until after the Federal Government comes out of caretaker mode) then CSIRO should be able to secure a development partner to progress the project to a basic development application footing.
The second announcement was the long awaited upgrade to the AIS. We wrote to the Federal Sports Minister in 2020 and were assured the money would be forthcoming once the review was completed. Unfortunately, those assurances ran into blockages of their own with the Federal Government blaming the ACT Government for not coming to the party with a share of the upgrades. In our view, that’s akin to a landlord asking their tenant to paint the walls, fix the leaks, plumb the new pipes and make their home liveable under local and national standards; all while asking them to pay additional rent to ensure the landlord doesn’t incur any costs. Similarly, the less than $12m will barely cover the costs of upgrading seating and fire/emergency systems; at this point that money is restricted to the AIS Arena and nowhere else.
I’ve been asked why we aren’t running a candidates forum for this election and I can say our Committee has been consistent for a number of years on this. We are funded by the ACT Government under terms that provide us with some flexibility around political activities, but no money flows to us from the Commonwealth to conduct any activities on their behalf. While we welcome the Member for Fenner and our two ACT Senators to our monthly meetings to provide updates on how they are working with the ACT Government to deliver infrastructure and services, there is no remit to provide an election forum for them and other candidates to promote themselves and their policies. But what we have done this time is offer incumbents and candidates 30 minute briefings on what is important to our community; for those who live, work and play in our district. There are plenty of opportunities for the candidates and community members to interact, and our monthly meetings have always been targeted to meet those expectations; we don’t want to encourage one off forums every three years. What we do want is for that conversation to happen every month at our meetings, to see and hear from our federal representatives every four weeks from February to November each year; to make their efforts felt across the whole electoral cycle. With that in mind, we have started the conversation with our ACT MLAs in Ginninderra on a three monthly basis, meeting online to keep abreast of issues and matters of importance to our community. The first meeting happened just before our March meeting (and our thanks to Jo Clay and her office for making it happen), our next will be in early June once the Federal election circus has moved on.
As always, we look to you for new ideas and thinking. Please reach out if you’d like to help our sub committees in the months ahead as we maintain our Belconnen district as “The Jewel in Canberra’s Crown”.
Glen Hyde
Chair
Belconnen Community Council
19 April 2022
Our March community meeting is Tuesday 15 March at 7pm. Can you join us?
Here’s the agenda:
Belconnen Community Council General Meeting
15 March 2022, 7pm via Zoom https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87862117953
AGENDA
7pm Welcome
7.05pm Chair’s Report
7.15pm MLA’s update
7.30pm TCCS – Dockless shared e-scooters linking Belconnen and Central Canberra through the Bruce precinct
8pm Icon Water/Diona re Belconnen Trunk Sewer
8.30pm General business
9pm Close