A small park at Dickson under threat from bulldozers may be saved after a strong community protest against its imminent destruction.
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The ACT government said on Friday it was now looking at an alternative to cutting down 27 trees for a so-called temporary car park on the corner of Antill and Cowper Streets, near the Dickson pool.
The breakthrough comes after a strident protest against the plan was put directly to government officials at a meeting convened by the North Canberra Community Council.
The officials were asked why the former site of the ACTTAB, now a vacant lot, could not be used for the car park while the current Woolworths car park is dug up to construct Coles and Aldi supermarkets.
The officials from the Environment and Planning Directorate, and Roads ACT were told the vacant lot already had approval as a temporary car park.
"Subsequent to this meeting, the government approached the owners of the former ACTTAB site in Dickson with respect to utilising their site for a car park, these discussions are continuing," a government spokeswoman said.
"The development application for the temporary car park to be built near the Dickson swimming pool remains under assessment."
Council chairman Mike Hettinger said on Friday he was very pleased with the decision to consider using the ACTTAB site and the likely reprieve for the grove of trees near the pool.
"One really strong argument is that the ACTTAB site has already been DA approved as a car park, so it's ready to go," he said. "It just needs to be fixed up."
Mr Hettinger said the breakthrough was partly due to his "good luck" at having invited representatives from two agencies to give presentations at the council meeting.
"We hope the assessment concludes the proposal to cut down trees need not go ahead and results in it being cancelled," he said.
"We definitely want it cancelled.
"We are also hoping that the assessment takes into account the traffic issues and concerns expressed by representatives from Roads ACT about the congestion and the traffic.
"Their own people at the meeting said they consider the ACTTAB site far superior.
"So we are hoping one arm of the ACT government is talking to the other, and we're pleased the North Canberra Community Council actually provided the forum where these government representatives were able to effectively connect with each other."
