- 16 Nov 2011
- Moorabbin Glen Eira Leader
Residents’ warnings go unheeded by council
I write in support of a neighbour’s concerns (‘‘Spotlight on centre’’, November 2) about car parking being built as part of the Glen Eira Sports and Aquatic Centre project. Residents were assured there would be ample off-road parking.
After removing a number of beautiful trees, Gardeners Rd residents are to be faced with an ugly carpark with floodlighting, which apparently will be left on until 11pm.
Glen Eira Council has shown throughout the whole building process a complete disregard for the rights of residents surrounding the project. Surely it must now be admitted, as residents warned, that there was not enough space for three basketball courts without major traffic and parking problems in surrounding streets.
Glen Eira Debates 
November 16, 2011 at 4:36 PM
There you go again Tucker ward councilors abandoning there residents.
Calling in a nightmare into there local neighbourhood and then turning their backs.
And all the while playing silly little games in the council chamber, anything but deal with the issues.
Tucker Ward councilors all traitors to the last person, vote them out to the man.
Maggee Hyams Lobo shame shame shame
November 16, 2011 at 9:50 PM
Having attended the inadequately planned GESAC meetings and offering an educated opinion of experience gained with being involved with basketball players for ove r 15 years I was in a position to calculate simple parking requirements. The figures were completely ignored by those who thought they knew better as usual so that is why we have inadequate parking places.
November 17, 2011 at 12:30 AM
GESAC – THE MESS JUST GETS MURKIER
I remind everybody that Council officially expects over 600,000 visitors to GESAC each year. Council hopes the business will about break even with that number of visitors. What happens if ‘only’ 500,000 come? The business will be in the red, with big trading losses. The facts are that the business of GESAC has to make a gross trading margin (surplus) of around $4M a year, just to cover the costs of huge loan repayments and some overheads.
This means almost Seven Dollars from each ticket paid by each every one of those 600,000 visitors, will be needed just to pay off the debt. On top of that there are to be added the normal running coats of GESAC. So in fact, tickets will have to be exorbitantly priced, just to cover the real costs. No wonder no financial plan has ever been presented to councillors at any council meeting. It is all just a shambles. .
Worse, since there is virtually no public transport, no trams or train stations within coo-ee, we can expect hordes of cars. Some people living very near may be able to walk or ride bicycles, but the great majority will come by car. (Hence, hundreds of thousands of cars. So much for our ‘Green’ council),. . With half-a-million visitors over the year, most coming in the warm summer months, and averaging 2 – 3 to a car, GESAC will need, at a minimum, parking for around 1,000 cars on typical hot summer days, more on weekends. That is many times more than we have now.
What an unmitigated, financial disaster looms upon us all.
November 17, 2011 at 9:54 AM
All this maybe true of the position of the GESAC, but were else could have it been sited?.
November 17, 2011 at 10:29 AM
It’s not about where gesac is placed. We didn’t need a mega palace. What we did need was proper planning to start off with and then proper supervision by all councillors instead of leaving it all to Newton, Burke and Lipshutz.
November 17, 2011 at 10:54 AM
Anonymous 4, you should be aware that this monstrosity of a project was the pet-child of Andrew Newton, dating from the 1990s (according to council records). In recent years he has distanced himself from being the initiator, and the bureaucracy now claims that some individual councillors (who are no longer on council and so can’t defend themselves), started it all. Sounds all so familiar, doesn’t it?
One lot of apologist garbage, blaming one particular former Glen Eira councillor even wound up on poor Mary Walsh’s blogsite. (The so-called information was given to Mary at a council meeting, in a brown paper bag (literally). This was in full view of the public gallery).. Truth is stranger than fiction, even in Glen Eira..If anyone is in doubt, come along and watch the circus with me.