We paid a visit to the centre of the racecourse (aka ‘The Wasteland’) this afternoon in order to check up on some emails we’ve received regarding the state of the upkeep of this land. What we found confirmed what residents had been saying:
- Barbecues that had not been cleaned for days or weeks
- Toilets that were disgusting
- Weeds everywhere
- Boardwalk fading and weeds/grasses coming through
- Dead saplings all over the place
- And not a soul to be seen at 2.30pm on a gorgeous day!
So much for the ‘Agreement’; so much for proper maintenance, and so much for Council supervision and possible breaches of the Health Act!
Glen Eira Debates 
January 30, 2014 at 4:13 PM
Disgusting disgusting and disgusting. This mob and council can’t be trusted with anything.
January 30, 2014 at 4:38 PM
Not the first time that residents have complained about the area and it won’t be the last. Nor will it change the MRC and make them fulfil their end of the deal. The main races are practically over so the paying customer is gone for the time being. When another race meeting is on, then the place will be cleaned up and not before. The rest of the time means non paying residents and we’re not worth a penny. We just pay Newton and the gang to sell us out even further.
January 30, 2014 at 4:55 PM
Enough with the picture poohy toilets please, points taken, except! decking will fade with time and sun, and it maybe better ro leave go that way, than spread (possibly) toxic finishes than would likely end up polluting the lake.
January 30, 2014 at 6:22 PM
Sure, filthy toilets aren’t nice to look at, but this kind of stuff needs to be publicised and documented. Unless they are embarrassed and get negative publicity then they won’t do a thing about it. Residents have every right to expect a perfectly clean park. They can’t just keep the horse area spic and span and spend all the money on that part of the grounds.
Another thing, if they did a good quality job omthe baordwalk then it wouldn’t look like this in a little less than a year. It was done on the cheap with poor materials. They got what they paid for and spent zillions on a synthetic track. Us poor plebs get the left overs.
January 30, 2014 at 5:10 PM
Did the MRC understand that they were responsible to maintain the area? Maybe the Glen Eira parks people are supposed to maintain this park. Either way it is a very poor outcome.
January 30, 2014 at 5:43 PM
The MRC claims about $5 million costs per year for maintenance of the area (leaving so much less that goes to the government and community from their overall profits!). This amount consists of watering, mowing, and clean ups. They are 100% responsible for the state of this so called park.
January 30, 2014 at 7:07 PM
I believe the $5m pa is for maintenance of the entire reserve, not just the centre. Landscaping the centre cost $1.8m – and as these pics prove ain’t no way that kind of $’s in spent on the centre, most of it goes on the tracks themselves and areas used by the racing industry and racegoers.
January 30, 2014 at 6:28 PM
Surely it’s the Trustees, along with the State Government, who are responsible for the lousy management of this Crown land. The Trustees have chosen to outsource day-to-day management of the land to MRC, but that doesn’t absolve them of their responsibilities. It was always a bad idea to leave the “park” to the MRC as the MRC has absolutely no interest in it other than as a temporary carpark and a place to dump racing infrastructure when not needed. The Member for Taking Credit, David Southwick, may be pleased to provide an explanation on behalf of the Government why the current outcomes are the ones they sought.
BTW I am a user of the centre, and even if it is decrepit, it is still an improvement over the degraded state of 3 years ago. It’s just not a park, and it desperately needs some trees.
January 30, 2014 at 10:12 PM
Get ol Lipshitz to clean up the dunny. That would be about his worth as the Glen Eira representative on the Trustees.
January 31, 2014 at 2:01 AM
The cleaners are not commissioned to go daily. This was obvious after the union function for thousands in early December. Two days later the area was filthy, the grass un-mown for weeks and the bbq’s filthy, which indicates that even if they have a large crowd in attendance it is not in programmed maintenance to clean up after such a ;large crowd immediately after the thousands had departed which would be a matter of normal practise after a major function had occurred. Asked our efficient Nd brilliant reception officers at C of GE whose responsibility and they said it was that of someone else of course.
You will be pleased to learn MRC is about tpo spend millions updating the track yet again.
The attendance of punters fell by 20 0r 25% last saturday and they have a new scatty ideaa that the races should start at about 2.30 so many a happy punters need to leave by 5.pp, just after the 5th race. Members should ask for theit membership fees to be returned as the programsw at those times would not suite too many with just a dinner appointment. Only 4,000 there … punters seem to be being chased away too!!!!!!
January 31, 2014 at 8:58 AM
My sis is thanking her lucky stars that she’s got out of the hell hole that’s going to be all the area for miles around the development and racecourse. Then I’m reading the online Leader and see that Delahunty isn’t saying how awful this plan is but only carrying on about infrastructure before the buildings start. Not a word about how big and how awful. Only Danby has had the guts to call it a future slum. She got elected to stop this kind of thing and very quickly has learnt to shut up and go along with the rotten gang and Newton.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/central/developer-lodges-first-plan-for-442apartment-caulfield-village-project/story-fngnvlpt-1226813979346
January 31, 2014 at 11:26 AM
Yeah and Delahunty’s election campaign included a hand delivered letter to residents surrounding the racecourse which started off with “residents you have been sold short”.
If you ask me she is the most disappointing Councillor of all – started with promise and is now towing the Admin line every chance she gets.
January 31, 2014 at 2:09 PM
I think all nine are disappointing. The decent Councillors get hounded from office by Newton, eg Penhalluriack and Grossbard.
January 31, 2014 at 4:20 PM
Grossbard was not as described, he was “yes man” to the regime
January 31, 2014 at 11:24 AM
All this looks like a typical Glen Eira park, weeds, rubbish all standard in our parks these days, and it usually take a resident complaint to get it cleaned up. It would be good to see this change. Considering Glen Eira has the lowest amount of open space, and we are coming off a large rate base, you would think we could achieve a better standard of landscaping, care and amenity. Instead what little we have is mostly of disappointingly low quality.
January 31, 2014 at 4:07 PM
Check out all Stonnington’s Parks. New contractor in for a month and everything looks magnificent!
January 31, 2014 at 7:34 PM
I noticed that too! Hope they keep it up. Meanwhile the oldest Park in Glen Eira (the one with the cannons on it in Glenhuntly Rd) is in disarray. The lawn has all burnt off and the grand old trees are dying. Obviously the water tank stuck in the middle of it is not being used. Can someone close get their hose out.
February 4, 2014 at 4:56 PM
Then why don’t we get those contractors , what are their names. Suggest them to council next time they have an EOI on parks and Gardens. Oh thats right they don’t do EOI’s, they do EGO’s , e.g. GESAC Basketball disgrace.
January 31, 2014 at 11:30 AM
Just think about it – neither the MRC nor Council can keep a public toilet clean yet both of them are convinced they have the wherewithall to undertake the humungous Caulfield Village proposal.
January 31, 2014 at 2:18 PM
Area still gilthy, unwatered unmown and BBQ’s a disgrace. The ckeaning must be only on one day a week. If we knew which day then we could use straight after.