City's cut-rate Champs-Elysees - The Canberra Times

Former Australian Greens leader Bob Brown. Photo: Peter Mathew

Bob Brown wanted a ''little Champs-Elysees'' - a walkway from Parliament House to Civic including several new footbridges in a project costing up to $10 million.

What the then Greens leader and senator - and the people of Canberra - will ultimately get is a few new signs, some repaired footpaths and a small section of new walkway costing a total of $200,000.

Now retired, Mr Brown says he will continue to lobby for a better walking route between Civic and Parliament House, as it was ''symbolically the most important foot track in Australia''.

''Wouldn't you have thought in the centenary year [former minister] Simon Crean and Julia Gillard could have done better for Canberra? But they didn't,'' Mr Brown said.

The now officially named Parliament House Walk is a 3.4-kilometre route from Parliament House, down Commonwealth Avenue to the Jolimont Centre in the heart of Canberra.

The federal government originally allocated in its 2012-13 budget $100,000 for a feasibility study for a new walkway. It ditched that idea in last week's budget and reallocated it for actual works on the existing infrastructure.

The ACT government has contributed $100,000.

Territory and Municipal Services Minister Shane Rattenbury said work would start on June 1 for up to 10 weeks. Damaged footpaths on the route would be repaired, new signs put up and a small section of new walkway constructed through open space behind West Block off Commonwealth Avenue.

''You often see tourists walking around struggling to find their way, so there will be boards with directions for the walk, but also other attractions,'' he said.

Mr Brown was disappointed, but determined to walk the new route once it was refurbished and draw attention to the need for further work.

''If it was so hard for me to get this step done, what hope for the average citizen?'' he said.

''It's the government that is putting $26 million into car transport over the coming budget years, and all it could find was $100,000 for this footway. It says a lot about how far government is divorced from people these days who want to cycle and walk so much.''

In 2010, then Senator Brown said pedestrians often had to run for their life across roads or scramble up banks to get access Parliament House.

He wanted a direct walking and cycling link from Civic to Parliament House rather than a maze of roads.

The next year he suggested the project could cost up to $10 million with at least two or three new pedestrian bridge crossings, including over Vernon Circle to City Hill.