We’ve received an email from the Glen Eira Residents’ Association, Inc., announcing their new revamped and reinvigorated website. A cursory look tells us that the issues that feature are those that are clearly causing the most angst amongst residents – traffic, lack of adequate planning and overdevelopment, and consultation methods and processes.
We extend our best wishes to this new community website and urge all concerned Glen Eira residents to take out membership given that this is the only incorporated group dedicated to dealing with broad local issues. The website is now located at:
http://geresidents.wordpress.com/
EMAIL: geresidents@hotmail.com
Glen Eira Debates 
February 4, 2012 at 6:04 PM
Can’t readily find who is on the Committee of Management. Anyone have a link?
February 5, 2012 at 6:27 AM
Glen Eira Residents Assoc, is that Don Dunstan’s mob, Don ran as an independent but bused a team of Young Liberals around polling booths on polling day in vain to get a few votes.
Imagine what the Liberal party would have wanted as a pay back if he had got up. I have big problems with organisations and people that say and run as independents when they are party hacks.
Maybe, Don could blog-in and set the record strait, or does he still trying to keep people ignorant of his true colours.
February 5, 2012 at 9:25 AM
It is also rumoured that Don has very close links to Frank who obviously has very close links to Glen Eira.
February 5, 2012 at 11:58 AM
Sort of what I was getting at. 😉
February 5, 2012 at 1:44 PM
As a relatively new resident of Glen Eira and having seen first hand the totally inadequate way Council grants building permits or considers residents concerns on the impact of traffic and parking I began following this blog site.
Yesterday’s notice of the revival of the Glen Eira Residents Association was good news as far as I am concerned. I reviewed their website and believe their posts on Consultation, Planning, Traffic and Parking reflects residents opinions.
Being a relatively new resident I have no clue who the above posters are referring to. But if the person named is the person responsible I say good on him and thank you. You’ll get my $20 early this coming week.
As for the posters above, it is interesting to note that not one comment (either positive or negative) has been made on the Association or website content – it all about the individual. All they are concerned about is shooting who they think is the messenger while ignoring the message.
February 5, 2012 at 2:53 PM
So Davo you believe anything that sounds half decent. You don’t care who the author is. If I was to be unkind I would ask what your IQ is .
February 5, 2012 at 3:13 PM
Half decent is better than the indecency of council’s bull and if you believe them, then what’s this say about your IQ?
February 5, 2012 at 3:27 PM
Half decent sounds a whole lot better than the way off spin of Council. And as for who wrote it – could you please review the illustrious Glen Eira News and find a name other than Newton (CEO column) or Hyams (Mayors column) attached to any article.
Keep up the slurs and inuendos as they do nothing to enhance your credibility.
February 5, 2012 at 3:30 PM
Insider, if I was associated with Glen Eira Residents Association, I’d take your comment of “half decent” as being a pretty big compliment.
February 5, 2012 at 5:31 PM
Don Dunstan puts in an extraordinary amount time into the GRA I’m told. Kudos to him for that.
It’s a base from which to run for Council. Something he’s done unsuccessfully.
Unfortunately the ubiquitous nature of his involvement there – to put it discreetly – puts many off joining. Also – rightly or wrongly – his contributions tend to not be marked as ‘high value’ at White Hall either by councillors or the admin. That’s my take for what it’s worth.
BTW. If they want feedback, perhaps turning off the comments isn’t the smartest move.
February 5, 2012 at 5:59 PM
The ongoing discussion here about Dunstan is incredible. Whether or not councillors or admin give him any “value” is exactly the point because I suspect he’s not a sheep who blindly follows. Whoever is running the association, I say good luck to them. If they can get people interested in what’s going on and highlight the central issues then they’ve done a damn good job. Anything that will inform people is to be commended. If some don’t like this idea then simply don’t read the posts and don’t get involved.
February 5, 2012 at 6:17 PM
Um! Unless you’re making an impact all the information in the world, although useful, is relatively meaningless.
The reason they don’t rate him isn’t because he’s critical, it’s substance and manner that are under scrutiny. Check a pamphlet he put out prior to the last last poll if you want an illustration.
The GRA has struggled for numbers and influence for yonks. You have to ask why.
February 5, 2012 at 6:37 PM
If you want things to change in Glen Eira, don’t go voting for people that run on a the age old lie of being independent, if prospectives are willing to lie about who and what represent at this first stage of being a candidate or should I say condidate, can you really expect anything except a complete cuddle-up with the CEO and business as usual once elected.
Put your thinking caps on and treat all candidates that say they are independents in next Glen Eira elections as Trojans Horses for the mayor parties, yes they have there reason why they didn’t mention their life long association with their parties etc, usually all nonsense and more lies.
Point one, these so called independent do not make good councillors once elected, because they are hog-tied by their parties and can’t move without permission from there bosses. Does this all sound familiar.
Vote Greens, they are totally honest about who they are and what they support and why. The Greens have a local grass-roots base that keeps them accountable as well.
February 5, 2012 at 10:52 PM
…written and authorized by N. Pilling, Murrumbeena.
February 5, 2012 at 11:08 PM
MODERATORS: We have deleted this entire comment on the basis that we do not believe it is appropriate nor relevant to the current discussion.
February 6, 2012 at 12:02 PM
MODERATORS: Comment deleted for same reasons as previously cited.
February 6, 2012 at 12:59 PM
Glen Eira are you a member of the Greens?
February 6, 2012 at 6:39 PM
There are only a few criteria I use when assessing candidates: principally are they making the decisions I would make if I was in their position and had access to the information and resources that they have. For fairly obvious reasons this eliminates most major parties from further consideration. Yes, it would be very annoying to discover a candidate was secretly aligned with a major party having failed to disclose that link.
There is only one party that I have ever considered voting “for” rather than “against”, and its not the Greens. No, the party I have considered voting for (on the few occasions they stood a candidate) has a strong policy around information and making it available, something that I consider essential for a healthy vibrant democracy.
The trouble with most political parties is that they’re a mixed bag: a few sensible policies contaminated by much that is designed to appeal to various special interest groups with out any strong philosophical underpinning.
In the case of the Greens, as personified by Cr Pilling, I don’t like their support for 4+ storey developments without landscaping, open space, safe pedestrian walkways, investment in public transport/infrastructure, or diversity of accomodation. Its always 1- and 2-bedroom apartments, sometimes with rooms so small the doors have to open outwards. Sure, Cr Pilling is not alone, but it turns me off the Greens. To err is human, but to stuff up comprehensively takes a political party.
February 6, 2012 at 7:09 PM
“….to stuff up comprehensively takes a political party…” or an incompetent administration and councillors:-)
February 6, 2012 at 8:54 PM
Reprobate, it has to be more than “very annoying” when most candidates fail to disclose their political alliance to voters.
In fact, it’s not very annoying, it’s out-right deceptive behaviour of the first order, akin to lying, and in most cases in Glen Eira it involves both deception and lying.
As I have said, can you trust any candidate that is willing to deceive the voters to achieve there goal. Of course you could not, they are untrustworthy and unfit to hold office of any kind.
The GREENS do not indulge in that type of behaviour, so at least give them credit for that. The GREENS have got this stance absolutely 100% right.
Now where does that leave the others?
As for this “mote in your eye” “development in Glen Eira” is there any benefits in Melbourne spreading far and wide, and the inner and middle suburbs like Glen Eira bearing the problems that that will and is causing.
It is just about to the point were all the gains we have made in cleaning up air pollution over the last 4 decades, is about to be over-run by the shear number of vehicles beating there way into the CBD and home again.
No-one here on this blog, ever presents any alternative to these dilemma’s, mostly you all sound like a bunch of conservative NIMBY’ers, all to willing to shoot the GREEN messengers.
February 7, 2012 at 9:40 AM
If Melbourne really wants unlimited population growth then it needs to find fairer and more humane ways to manage it. Despite your assertion, I have spent considerable time making suggestions to improve the situation, at both local and state level, and in comments posted here. The perjorative tag “NIMBY” is over-used. It doesn’t apply to me because I’m in an area where there has been substantial multi-unit development. It *is* in my backyard. So are all the problems.
It pisses me off that 80% of the municipality believe they should be protected at the expense of 20%. On the evidence available to me, people fight development strenuously because they can see how badly its been done so far. The system is manifestly corrupt. Some of your comments fail to answer what Melbourne should look like in 20 or 30 years time. Even basic things like where people work, how far they have to travel, what jobs they’ll be doing, who produces the food for them, what their needs for healthy lives–these are all ignored in M2030 and M@5M. And if our State Government doesn’t have much of an idea, well Council is completely clueless.
Its not much of an answer simply to build large numbers of small 1- and 2-bedroom units. They’re not suitable for families, or even many aging people. One developer justified the tiny size of their dwellings and lack of open space by saying that people won’t want to spend much time in them. Attitudes like that reveal that development is “all about money”, to quote one developer. We know it is. Its not about the health, welfare, needs or aspirations of people.
February 6, 2012 at 11:01 PM
Greeny Anon wrote: “No-one here on this blog, ever presents any alternative to these dilemma’s, mostly you all sound like a bunch of conservative NIMBY’ers, all to willing to shoot the GREEN messengers”.
We don’t address most of the problems you raised because most do not strictly come within the councils remit.
I wholeheartedly agree that it should be mandated that prospective councillors disclose how close their affiliations are to political parties. There was a very strong rumour last year that a candidate for election was promised pre-election for a State Liberal seat if that candidate was successful and fulfilled the party’s expectations. You would never have known it from the pre-election propaganda that candidate circulated. Fortunately that person missed the boat.
February 7, 2012 at 4:14 PM
Reprobate we really need a few more 1000 thinkers like you, people with an understanding of the past an eye for the future and with enough guts to understand that now, is the time to act.
Sadly this is not Glen Eira City Council or the majority of its Councillors.
What we have have here a a mess dominated by some outdated adversarial model, dominated by the two main parties, that cannot and choose not to respond to the electorate. They have sold out the votes for many many decades for their private ambitions.
With this in mind, what are the choices, I am saying that the GREENS are a good starting point. But, for most people it will take a lifetime of rusted-on Lib Lab voters to give the GREENS a fair ago.
To quote a smart man,”insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”
This insanity is Glen Eira today, and the CEO and others exploit this madness to the hilt.
Choose your candidates carefully at the up-coming election in November 2012. Because there is going to be the same old pseudo independents lining up offering the residents everything, but delivering, you know what.
ABSOLUTELY ZERO
February 7, 2012 at 4:34 PM
Would you say Neil Pilling has lived up to his pre-election mantra of openness, transparency and accountability? Would you say he advocates on bahalf of residents as vigorously as he did in his first few months as a Councillor?
Or would you say he has largely become a fellow traveller who gives only lip service to the pre-election mantra and is as guilty as the next Councillor when it comes to the myriad of issues that are kept confidential?
Take off your “Greens” hat and answer that objectively and honestly.
February 7, 2012 at 10:40 PM
Perhaps Reprobate would be so kind as to disclose his or her real identity, and whether he or she is an office bearer of GERA, and whether he or she is a former member of council or former unsuccessful council candidate?
February 7, 2012 at 6:04 PM
Cr Pilling is one councillor, out of nine fairly stayed and conservative others. In my view he has consistently battled for a more open and transparent council in a climate were the majority of councillors are striving to shut openness and transparency down.
He has guided though many good environmental initiative which Glen Eira sorely needed. His was in the local paper this week speaking up for the local pool in Carnegie. No other Councillor would dare do that or has gone on record to support the pool.
He has worked hard on other issues as well, like the Kindergarten closure at Elsternwick. There is a lot more that I just cannot pull-out of the bag and the drop of a hat.
Lets not forget that the CEO has just scrapped back into his position twice running, this has only just happen since Cr Pilling was elected so he must have been of some welcome influence here.
For Cr Neil Pilling to get anything through council he must garner the support of four other councillors, which in my estimation would be a very difficult task to achieve, to his credit he has managed to do this on many occasions.
Like so many issues in local government they are not that sexy or memorable. There has been a change in attitude and voting alliances, Jamie Hyams winning the Mayorship by the toss of a coin is one very healthy change to the fait accompli, revolving door mentality that has been the normal.
Things have improved in Glen Eira over the last 3 plus years and Cr Pilling has had a major and welcomed part in that change.
Like I said at the start, Cr Pilling is just one lone Greens councillor among eight others. Without him pushing the important social and environmental issues in Glen Eira, we all would be very much the worse off.
February 7, 2012 at 10:00 PM
Thanks Neil but you are really starting to grate on me. If you want to get reelected, you should start delivering on your promises. A song and dance was made about “the agreement” and the opening up the centre of the racecourse. Delivery- ZERO.
February 7, 2012 at 9:07 PM
Greeny Anonymous wrote :Things have improved in Glen Eira over the last 3 plus years and Cr Pilling has had a major and welcomed part in that change.
Not sure too many here would agree with that. The Ombudsman was called on three times to report on Council activities. There was an Investigation and Compliance report which, amongst other things, “…uncovered councillor behaviour that is at odds with objectives of council”.
Then there was the mishandling of Esakoff’s alleged conflict; the mess over the mulch depot; the high number of in-camera meetings; the lack of reasonable consultation on so many issues of significance; the resignation of Helen Whiteside over governance matters………….and so it goes.
Sure Neil is only one councillor but he was the one who undertook to openly, transparently and vigorously work to change the culture. Not much speaking out in the last couple of years – though he’s been a bit more active recently with elections on the horizon 😉 – and the culture is as bad as ever.
Don’t think there are many here who would agree with your comment that things are better.
February 8, 2012 at 8:16 AM
You folk keep flogging yourselves to death over the racecourse, no single councillor today can reverse the complicity of the last 100 years.