Here are the agenda items of note for next Wednesday night’s council meeting. We will be writing much, much more of these issues!
MRC and Council Agreement for Centre of the Racecourse
Readers should carefully dissect this proposed agreement. It basically ignores the resolution passed by Council less than a month ago! (See Item9.12)
Strategic Resource Plan
- Rates up 6.95%
- $5.5 million for Duncan MacKinnon in 20011/12 and then another $1.8 in 2012/13
- Pavilions – $2m p.a. commencing in 2012-2013.
- Elsternwick Child Care Centre – Council has developed a proposal to obtain use of some Crown Land on the east side of Kooyong Road to build a purpose-built child care centre – $250k has been allocated in 2011-2012 for building design and community consultation and $1.35m in 2012-2013 for building works.
- Booran Road Reservoir – The SRP allows for the reinstatement and redevelopment of the Booran Road Reservoir Site – $4m in 2017-2018 and $3.5m in 2018-2019. (Hence for another 4 years this valuable open space will remain untouched!)
COMMENTS
- No appreciable increase in spending on drains
- Pavilions are the major priority of this council it seems – without any cost benefit analyses as to refurbishment/redevelopment as opposed to demolition and new buildings
Tree Protection
Incorporating Tree Protection into the Planning Scheme is considered too ‘cumbersome’. Instead, there is the option to simply introduce a new clause into the Local Law, which will require a permit for about 100-200 trees in the special category of ‘Classified’.
COMMENT: How will this stop ‘moonscaping’?
Council Plan
“Council proposes to retain the existing Council plan” (No further ‘consultation’ since it was done so wonderfully well in 2008!)
Planning Applications
|
Address |
Proposal |
Notification |
Objections |
| 29 Railway Pde | 3 storey/16 dwellings | 12 residences notified; 22 notices sent | 21 objections |
| 285 Hawthorn Rd | Synagogue/reduction in car parking | 7 properties notified; 25 notices sent | 14 objections + petition of 47 objections |
| 8 A’Beckett St | 2 dwellings | 9 properties notified; 23 notices sent | 2 objections |
| 14-18 Lillimur Rd. | Amend current permit | 35 properties notified; 49 notices sent | 2 objections |
| Halstead, Cromwell & Hawthorn Rd | Subdivision into 19 lots; remove reserve status (current use: private open space) | 82 properties notified; 148 notices sent | 2 objections |
COMMENT: The usual lack of notification continues. Please note that inverse correlation.
Glen Eira Debates 
April 21, 2011 at 8:47 PM
Already the promises of last year have bitten the dust. Instead of 6.5% rate increase, there will not be nearly another half percent. When the budget finally makes an appearance it will probably have gone up again. There is no money for anything we’re told except huge loans and more and more expenditure on sporting palaces that only cater to a minority of the population. This is not planning – it is ineptitude and vested interest of the highest order.
Recent comments have raised the issue of potential conflict of interest. I wonder how many councillors and officers are directly involved with sporting clubs and whether or not they are guilty of conflict of interest? How about it Magee, Hyams, Russo, and countless others? Then there’s Lipshutz with his affiliations to Maccabi. The list goes on and on. When other services are downgraded so that a bunch of footballers can play on milliion dollar grasses and shower in multi million dollar palaces, when homes are flooded, and kids can’t get into kindergartens, then I think it’s time that this entire bunch of hypocrites were given the boot. I’m disgusted with them all.
April 21, 2011 at 11:11 PM
One of the worst facts of all these so called change rooms or pavillions is that they in turn are enormous like “a home away from home” and require elaborate parking and roads to reach them within the park and so we lose hectares of precious green grass. One of the definitions of a park is “to be preserved in its natural state” according to the Macquarie Dictionary. Strangely enough the definition does not include pedestrian crossings or roads. I now yearn for the sight of Hyde Park London which for those who do not know is still in its natural state and is not crowded with buildings, roads and big big buildings.
April 21, 2011 at 11:11 PM
Politics in Council is little different to politics in an office environment. You get the rent-seekers, the timeservers, the idealogues, the backstabbers, and occasionally the people who are so honest they’re uncorruptible.
For democracy to work we, the people, need to be active participants at all levels of Government, and make clear when Council behaviour is unacceptable. Largely through the efforts of Andrew Newton and his carefully chosen senior officers, Glen Eira Council has deteriorated in corporate governance. Information is carefully hidden. Paul Burke publicly dissembles about Council’s policy re high density development. Under Jeff Akehurst, major projects are built without a planning permit. Ron Torres takes a year before acknowledging a shopping complex has failed to comply with its Planning Permit. Health hazards are first ignored, then denied. The waste of money is inaccurately attributed to Councillors (other than they listened to Andrew in the first place).
My sympathy is with young council officers who have a career in front of them. This is not how to run a Council. If Andrew really so desperately wants C60 then he should speak out publicly about his reasons why. Me, I want to get rid of several senior officers so we can start the rebuilding process before further damage is inflicted.
Until then, expect more of the same.
April 22, 2011 at 4:51 AM
Who knows what will happen to all the money collectors and big spenders in the Town Hall when China stops buying coal and iron and we cannot afford to pay all the hefty rates. Do you think we willbe all calm and peaceful as the council sells us up for the costs of the $45 million acqatic centre and the pavillion for running in…….. whoever heard such nonsense. The area will be further built on and therefore sport’s area shrinkage will apply as in all other parks.
April 23, 2011 at 8:18 PM
So $7.5 million for the Booran Road reservoir and they haven’t yet made a decision on what to do with it. So how do they know what it will cost? Consultation was promised – but it looks like the decisions have been made.