Melbourne 2030 has become the convenient scapegoat for the ongoing failure of Glen Eira Council to adequately plan for the future. Everything is laid at the feet of the Brumby government, thus absolving councillors and senior executives of any role in the current fiasco that represents Glen Eira planning. The recent Caulfield Village Panel Report makes this clear in spades – but more of that in the following days.

What is important right now is to ask the basic question: does Glen Eira actually need the Caulfield Village to fulfil the Melbourne 2030 vision and its other legal obligations? Or have we already far exceeded all population prognostications? The table below gives a clear indication that Glen Eira and, in particular the surrounds of the Racecourse, have well and truly exceeded target population figures. Yet, with council’s tacit consent, the region is still ‘developing’!

The major problem with the report and the Amendment C60 which triggered the report, is that:

• Neither the panel, nor the Council, considered the impact(s) on surrounding Glen Eira suburbs
• Neither the panel, nor the Council, considered the implications for traffic in the wider region
• Glen Eira has failed to carry out a Structure Plan for the whole Phoenix Precinct (includes Monash Caulfield Campus part and Caulfield Racecourse) with an integrated plan and an integrated transport plan as required by Melbourne 2030 guidelines, and the recently adopted Integrated Transport Act.
• ‘Evidence’ in the form of ‘expert’ testimony, for the most part was commissioned by the MRC, which cleverly restricted everything to Caulfield Village area (not all of the Major Activity Centre area). Council relied on policies, masterplan and ‘research’ a decade old.

But the major sticking point remains the argument that Glen Eira has to endorse such projects in order to cater for its yet to be realised population explosion. Nothing could be further from the truth. The following table has been constructed using ABS population statistics. They reveal a totally different picture and call into question not only the failure to present to the public such statistics, but reveal how we have all been hoodwinked by a Council that either does not do its homework well enough, or is at the beck and call of developers.

In particular, readers should note from the table below:

• The staggering proposed increase in Caulfield East population
• The fact that we have well exceeded expectations
• The already huge impact on surrounding Glen Eira suburbs.

  Glen Eira Vision 2020(1991 census) Glen Eira Actual Caulfield Eastactual 6 Glen Eira suburbs around Caulfield East 2 Stonnington suburbs around Caulfield East
Population 1996 117,037 112,737 1,206 58,696 27,890
Population 2006 117,060 122,069 1,174 63,679 29,138
Population Current 2009   136,354 1,242 66,905 30,395
Population 2016 Projected 117,479 160,671 3,642 77,659 30,528
% Change 1996 to 2016 0.38 % 42.5 % 302 % 32.3 % 9.46 %