ACTEA was told, on 12 September, that the new preference for the Weston Creek Dog Park was a site about 200m north of the intersection of Eucumbene Drive and Warragamba Avenue which had the advantage of an existing access track from Eucumbene Drive and which acknowledged the existence of the Bicentennial National Trail on the northern verge of Warragamba Avenue.
You can imagine our astonishment, not to say anger, to find in the last couple of days that Transport & City Services (TCCS) have moved the dog park further to the east behind the original site and propose to use an old existing track from Warragamba Avenue cutting directly across the BNT route. You can see this track here and on Google, about 200m downhill from the intersection. You can also see the map on line at https://www.yoursay.act.gov.au/new-weston-creek-dog-park
ACTEA immediately sought a meeting with the project officer to object strongly to this change and the complete lack of consultation with us. At the meeting we discovered that TCCS was describing the BNT as a ‘temporary trail’. They propose to widen the existing gravel track to 6m to make it two-way and line it with boulders to stop vehicles from driving off the path. The dog park itself and the parking area for around 30 cars will be hidden behind an existing double row of trees and is not, in itself, an issue.
TCCS claim that the choice of entrance point is dictated by Roads ACT standards and the cost of upgrading some of the much longer access options available.
ACTEA’s position is:
- the green verge may have been an official ‘interim route’ for the Bicentennial Trail for the last four years and will probably be so for at least four more years but it has been a well used equestrian trail since the 1970s and this is acknowledged by the installation of a Pegasus Crossing at the Streeton Drive intersection.
- horses travelling up the hill from the bottom of Warragamba Drive need to canter as it is a relatively steep climb and hard work for horse and rider at a trot. A horse’s canter speed is anything between 16-27kph and creating a barrier of rocks across their path on the entrance road is not a safe thing to do and could potentially cause injury to horses and riders.
- the wide green verge from Eucumbene to Streeton Drive is a dog-off-leash area. While meeting one or two dogs being walked in this space, as happens now, is not much of an issue, encouraging numerous owners to wander across the horse trail unrestrained to the dog park entrance gate is extremely worrying. Numbers of dogs having great fun together chasing horses into traffic is a nightmare vision.the dog park will be busiest on weekends when people want to ride their horses
At the end of discussions Capital Works were offering the following:
- ensuring the vehicle track when widened would be at the same level as the surrounding grass, with no kerbs and be made only of small gravel so as not to form a significant change of surface or obstruction for horses
- a proposed concrete path beside it for walkers would not be constructed
- serious speed humps would we installed on the track at the Warragamba Avenue end and at the dog park end before the departing drivers leave the cover of the trees
- if boulders are used to mark the vehicle track they would only be placed at either end leaving a very wide (20m?) space in the middle through which horses could travel
- ‘give way to horses’ signs could also be erected at either end of the entrance track
- warning signs on the horse trail to let riders know a vehicle crossing is coming up
Capital Works wants to submit a Development Application on this project before Christmas so as not to be caught up the the government shut down period. They are proposing the legally mandated public consultation process in January. In the meantime we won’t know what is in the DA.
We need urgent feedback on this development and the proposed mitigations at cflawrence@homemail.com.au. Would you be comfortable with them? Do you have other suggestions for increasing safety? We will of course continue to push to have the entrance moved elsewhere.