May 6, 2016
The Truth!!!!!! Words Fail Us!!!!!
Posted by gleneira under Councillor Performance, GE Consultation/Communication, GE Governance, GE Planning, GE Service Performance[54] Comments
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Glen Eira Debates
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May 6, 2016 at 1:29 PM
30thJune 2016 deadline! Council will need to get moving to comply with Wynn’s deadline. All stakeholders need Glen Eira Council to ensure that they put in place changes needed to rectify what has been happening since the zones were introduced so that the future of Glen Eira is able to be managed better than it has been. Council can no longer say that it is not their fault and there is nothing they can do to change the rampant overdevelopment of our no longer beautiful suburbs.
May 6, 2016 at 1:45 PM
How do we have any chance of influencing change and expressing resident views given that no opportunity has to date been offered by council for resident meetings. They cannot do the task any justice at all in the remaining time
This is an absolute disgrace – council needs to be sacked NOW
May 6, 2016 at 1:55 PM
A staggering letter. This is nothing more than a total condemnation of planning in Glen Eira for the last 15 years. Newton and his lackey councillors have got a lot to answer for.
May 6, 2016 at 3:04 PM
The letter makes clear that Council has been directed to do a review, but doesn’t accurately state that Council has been granted multiple extensions/exemptions, both by current and previous Planning Ministers. As the Minutes of GECC council meetings show, there has never been a resolution to seek extensions and the Minister hasn’t explained that failure, or provided his reasons for granting extensions in the past which meant our Scheme was NOT regularly reviewed. At least he is now sufficiently embarrassed as to use his powers to direct a review be done.
His Direction does make a mockery of Council’s Discussion Paper. He specifically mentions Bentleigh, but there is no Community Engagement meeting scheduled for Bentleigh. Since his letter is dated in December, there cannot possibly be any excuse for this failure.
I do hope people point out to Council that there hasn’t been a single recommendation emerging from Council or its staff to improve the planning scheme based on any adverse VCAT decision. It is almost as if Council is happy with VCAT’s decisions but is uncomfortable with admitting it publicly.
May 6, 2016 at 3:19 PM
The fourth paragraph of the letter is telling. Maybe now Lipshutz and Magee especially will keep their traps shut and not blame vcat for all their own errors and failures. (MODERATORS: sentence deleted)
May 6, 2016 at 4:22 PM
FYI – the MRDAC (advisory committee) hearings on the implementation of the residential zones are now taking place. Sessions were held in regional centres and now they are taking place in town. Glen Eira it its wisdom has decided NOT TO PRESENT! Thus, aside from a woeful submission, Glen Eira is not partaking of the opportunities offered it. Here is the list of all the other councils who are currently presenting to the committee –
Melbourne
Yarra
Stonnington
Port Phillip
Banyule
Mornington
Moreland
Bayside
Cardinia
Kingston
Nillumbuk
Darebin
Moonee Valley
Hobsons Bay
Melton
Whitehorse
Boroondara
Yarra Ranges
Monash
Bendigo
Latrobe
May 7, 2016 at 9:39 AM
No surprise to me. Getting up in public and making a case for themselves about how terrific they are would be impossible and it might mean a bit of work and disclosing figures that don’t match the propaganda. Better to do nothing and then blame the state gov if they make changes.
May 6, 2016 at 4:54 PM
In view of the letter some awfully big changes are needed. Council cannot be allowed to get away with some tiny cosmetic changes. I will be complaining directly to Wynne if this happens and I won’t accept anything less than full structure plans for every activity centre and neighbourhood centre plus all the other things that were promised in 1999 like parking plans. Newton has destroyed vast areas of the city and it has got to stop and quickly.
May 6, 2016 at 9:05 PM
You should add Matthew Guy, Akehurst, the planning honchos, and Hyams to the list. Plus the latest converts like Magee and Pilling. Would bet my life that they have never even looked at the planning scheme much less read it.
May 6, 2016 at 5:10 PM
At last the sh*t has hit the fan and the truth gets out. Maybe that’s why Newton resigned when he did. My reaction to the letter is that council kept trying to delay and not complete its “responsibilities”. They gave no thought to what was happening to their streets and peoples well being. All they wanted and undoubtedly still want, is more and more development and more rates coming in so that the money can be wasted again. Nothing is up front with this council. It should be dismissed immediately.
May 6, 2016 at 5:18 PM
Good on Wynne – less than two years in office and he’s shown more interest in, and awareness of, planning in Glen Eira than any Councillor has – even though they’s had considerably more time in office. He’s also shown more interest in what folks, other than the Administration, have to say.
And yet unlike all Councillors, he’s not getting up and saying he knows what residents want and although we’ve never bothered to put it in the planning scheme we should be listened to.
What Wynne is unequivocally saying is fix the f*cking planning scheme by adopting the principles of proper planning and implementing all planning measures that have been available since 2003.
May 6, 2016 at 5:54 PM
Yes and yes again. Appalling state of affairs that a minister had to order a council to do something that is part of the law that they are sworn to obey.
May 7, 2016 at 9:18 AM
Wynne takes instructions from senior State Gov. staff. You can bet that they have had Glen Eira in their sights for a long time. Their main hurdle was moved a few months ago. Ministers come and go but the public servants are there for the long haul.
May 6, 2016 at 6:02 PM
All Councillors should resign immediately! This confirms all, the lies, deceit, fabrication, lack of transparency, ect. These individuals are not fit for public office and the community cannot have any confidence in the Planning Scheme review. The Councillors have been dragged kicking and screaming to this review process on the back of a further request for an extension. It is being managed as a facade and in a contemptuous manner. What a disgrace, not even any disclosure at a Council meeting. When asked about undertaking consultation in Bentleigh the advice was that no venue was available – a further lie. An independent investigation of this behaviour is required with a key question being what is the motivation?
May 7, 2016 at 10:32 AM
Hard to swallow that from Jauary they knew they were going to have to consult and still couldn’t find a venue in Bentleigh. No way is every single place booked out for 4 months.
May 7, 2016 at 4:07 PM
I heard the reason the “preferred” venue was vacant on the two nights in question was due to late cancellations.
May 6, 2016 at 6:11 PM
There’s a new ceo. The writing up of the review comes under “administrative” meaning that theoretically she is in control and Lipshutz, Hyams, Esakoff, Pilling, Magee, Ho can go jump. What the review will say and include should tell us much about the future direction of Glen Eira and whether change is definitely in the wind or an illusion.
May 6, 2016 at 6:42 PM
I am sure that the Mayor would not have disclosed this mess to the CEO on appointment. She deserves all the support and encouragement from the community to eliminate this totally unacceptable behaviour which has become culturally engrained in Glen Eira.
May 6, 2016 at 6:22 PM
Congratulations to all incumbent Councillors. Your total failure to represent the residents by approving the 2013 Zone Implementation without community consultation and without even considering applying any of the available planning tools to control what you unleashed (ie. 87 years housing supply, 107 years supply when you add in commercial zones) has pissed everyone off.
Managing to piss off the Minister, Department of Planning, local MPs, residents, developers and VCAT in less than 3 years is an outstanding achievement.
Make sure you put it in your election brochures.
May 6, 2016 at 7:45 PM
Wynne wrote in December. The meeting was Feb. and the announcement of the review was in April. That’s four months that they should already have been doing the background analysis and producing a discussion paper that had a lot more in it that what came out. Questions are crap and solutions offered are equally crap.
May 6, 2016 at 7:53 PM
While I can’t argue with Wynne’s damming comment that “Council needs to exercise its responsibilities under that act”, I have to admit to having grave reservations about Council’s ability to do so.
Councillors all deserve the comments made above as well as those that are sure to follow. BUT scratch the surface. Who provided the unobjective and sub-standard information and recommendations they blindly followed? The Planning Department!!!.
Glen Eira has legions of planners that residents are paying top dollar for. The planners are supposedly a highly trained team of professionals dedicated to ensuring that the GE’s planning scheme is the bench mark by which other planning schemes judged. Yet, It’s pretty clear that Minister ranks GE Planning at the “dud” level.
The Ministers scathing assessment of planning in Glen Eira is not only a scathing assessment Councillors but also of GE’s Planning Department.
May 7, 2016 at 1:52 AM
The change of direction in Town Planning strategy has occurred with the appointment of Andrew Newton as CEO in 2000, as well as with the appointment of Paul Burke as a Director Community Relations in 2001. Those 2 have developed the fundamental strategy of development of the City. The strategy was to simplify the work of the Council to that, which they must do by legislation and palm off anything else to other levels of Government or private companies. So, we ditched the Urban Villages Structure Plans, which only covered the stage one of such plans. You will find when you examine other Councils structure Plans, they are much more detailed than the ones for Elsternwick, Carnegie and Bentleigh. Since 2000 no work on Structure Plans was ever done. In addition, the C25 Housing Diversity work, while very good as a basis for Housing Policy was specifically developed to privatise Town Planning work onto developers. That meant that the GEPS was very flexible from the beginning of C25 with 2004 final version, which still exists. Many developers do not like it, because it means more work for them. On the other hand the big developers make sure that they get more ‘bang for their bucks’. Why should a developer bother to have ‘shop top apartments’ with difficulties of renting the shops, when they can just flog pure residential blocks and enjoy the bigger profits quicker.
Of course, to suggest that GECC is thoroughly bad administratively is wrong. What they do within the strategies they have developed is very good. So, you have the excellent Carnegie Library, excellent GESAC, excellent Duncan MCKinnon, excellent many park improvements, all properties owned by the Council. One may quible about the cost and time overruns, but even that is explained by the way that this tendering process has been provatised. The tender process game is a game, wher the Council and the tenderers know how to play it. To award a tender, it must go to the most beneficial bidder. So, of course it will show a cost-effective way to implement the tender. However, there are always clauses regarding changes and variations. Somehow, in Glen Eira those come in on a regular basis with the result that delays occur and the costs escalate. It happens time, after time, after time.
But, you can’t complain too much can,you, if you look at the wonderful facilities being built and maintained properly. So, should we change the strategy? I think so, but you do need to change also the way the Council and communities engage with each other. At the moment, it seems that the community may propose and the Council disposes. It simply means they do whatever they think is suitable and ‘stuff you’. Other than that it is a good life here.
May 7, 2016 at 2:26 PM
My opinion about the facilities you are talking about is that they are completely ‘over to top’ in what has been included in the. I understand there are three full commercial kitchens in the Duncan McKinnon ediface. The Carnegie Library is good but the rest of the enormous building was supposed to be a community centre but offers no sense of ‘community’ at all due to its inappropriate ‘grand’ design. The parks also show little reflection of community need and use and have all been designed to look the same instead of reflecting their local situation. I don’t like what this council has done with facilities much at!!!
May 7, 2016 at 10:06 PM
Yep, Yep agree with you totally. Only confirms what I said before ‘we know what is best for you’ and ‘just get stuffed with your suggestion, you nincompoop and non-professional’.
May 7, 2016 at 6:47 AM
“A fish rots from the head”. As highlighted by the Minister’s letter, the Councillor gang is not interested in a planned approach to development. Are the Council planners complicit? Who knows but they have certainly been “asleep at the wheel” and this has been at a great cost to residents.
May 9, 2016 at 12:42 PM
Planners take their order from on high. They do as they are told and have to work within the confines of the existing planning scheme. If the planning scheme hasn’t been touched for a couple of centuries then there’s not much they can do. With amendments that again comes from the bosses and they don’t want change. This is fully supported by the neanderthals, aka councillors, who would believe every single word that they are told and would never think of questioning anything because they can then be trodden on as has happened in the past. There’s also favours that can be dished out to developer friends with the current scheme. All in all a wonderful state of affairs when you have a dictatorship rather than a real consultative and community oriented council.
May 6, 2016 at 10:59 PM
All this would go strait over Pillings head, he is (MODERATORS:rest of comment deleted)
May 7, 2016 at 6:59 AM
The Councillors should be sacked.
Glen Eira City Council Guiding Values include: Accountable and Relevant Leadership – We consult, listen, and take note of community views to determine its priorities and needs and then act through open, transparent processes that are financially and environmentally responsible and sustainable….
Glen Eira City Councillor Oath of Office states: to undertake the duties of the office of Councillor in the best interests of the people of the municipal district of Glen Eira and to faithfully and impartially carry out the functions, powers, authorities and discretions vested in them under the Local Government Act or any other Act….
May 7, 2016 at 9:28 AM
They just go with the bureaucrats it makes life so much easier, stab the residents in the back, take the money and run, to easy
May 7, 2016 at 10:49 AM
Wynne’s epistle endorses all of our commentary on council and vcat over the past few years. To refresh readers’ memory, here are some of our most recent posts where VCAT decisions speak loudly and clearly about the failings of the planning scheme and consequently, council –
https://gleneira.wordpress.com/2016/02/26/more-lipshutz-magee-bullshit/
https://gleneira.wordpress.com/2015/09/30/more-lipshutz-hyams-fiction/
https://gleneira.wordpress.com/2015/08/20/vcat-versus-council-ineptitude/
May 7, 2016 at 11:12 AM
Well done. Interesting to see whether Council completes a strategic assessment of VCAT decisions as this clearly should be part of a comprehensive review of the Planning Scheme. Also, will Council table the policy gaps that the Minister refers to in the letter? I understand that at the first community consultation session on the Planning Scheme, Council didn’t raise anything meaningful and no time for questions was allocated. Also heard that Jim Magee was trying to get out the door as he was completing his introduction, a standup comedy skit.
May 7, 2016 at 11:08 AM
The Planning Minister currently has a Committee, MRDAC, made up of members of the development industry to advise him on the residential zones and in particular what changes should be made to them. I was curious what the breakout of the hours of hearings looked like: 35 hours development industry; 20 hours residents and resident groups; 19 hours lunch and tea breaks; 2 hours preliminary and administrative matters. So the development industry gets roughly twice as much time to argue for their vested interests as residents do. Also notable is that young people have zero representation.
May 7, 2016 at 1:05 PM
nuthin like the minister telling ya your crap
May 8, 2016 at 7:59 AM
Great for everyone to post on this site but also make sure that you complete a submission for the Planning Scheme Review at:
http://www.gleneira.vic.gov.au/Planning-and-business/Strategic-Planning/Planning-Scheme-Review/Planning-Scheme-Review-submission-form.
May 8, 2016 at 9:50 AM
Comments are all great and so true. I only wish that this could have happened 3 years ago. Not one single councillor has represented residents. They are a disgrace and an embarrassment.
May 8, 2016 at 1:08 PM
Well, elections happen again in October.
With the exception of Ho, every current incumbent voted for the Zones and has steadfastly refused turned a deaf ear to residents outcries. Yet those same outcries are mirrored in Wynne’s letter.
Not one current Councillor deserves re-election. This includes Ho whose maiden appearance as a Councillor left little doubt that he too had little interest representing residents.
May 8, 2016 at 12:04 PM
Wynne isn’t pussy footing around. Kudos to him. Language is the highlight in all this. He is “concerned” that there is no “adequate guidance”. He finds “policy gaps” and overall the scheme is only “generally consistent” with government direction. Plus it is not “commensurate with the level of change” that has happened. He doesn’t miss out on council doing anything since 1999 either particularly when they are “required” to do regular reviews. Last slap in the face is the order to “exercise its responsibilities under the act”. Damning in the extreme even given the need for “diplomacy”.
May 8, 2016 at 1:56 PM
And also the ire of local residents, members of Parliament and VCAT.
May 8, 2016 at 1:42 PM
Cr. Jim “The Fabricator” Magee has been saying that the Minister did not order the current planning scheme review and that he, when Mayor, had written to the Minister requesting approval for Glen Eira to undertake a review.
Well, now the Minister’s letter is in the public domain. Far from requesting a review Glen Eira requested a further exemption from a review and community consultation. Not only did the Minister order the review with community participation, he also provided the reasons as to why he thought the planning scheme was a pile of crap.
Gonna be interesting to hear the spin The Fabricator and his cohorts come up with next.
May 8, 2016 at 6:49 PM
You wont get an apology, admission of errors. It will be everyone elses fault.
May 9, 2016 at 11:06 AM
Minor detail: Cr Magee’s letter didn’t request approval for GECC to undertake a review: it has both the power and the duty to review regularly the provisions of the planning scheme for which it is a planning authority. What was sought was a tweak of language to require VCAT to apply the Planning Scheme rather than merely consider it or take it into account.
Council hasn’t admitted it, but it has the same freedom as VCAT to ignore whatever doesn’t support the outcome they want. Neither VCAT nor Council actually does take into account all that must be taken into account, or consider all that must be considered. The majority of decisions are actually made by council staff under delegated authority, and there is NO accountability or transparency for that subset of decisions.
May 9, 2016 at 9:01 AM
The main culprits in destroying our municipality and peoples biggest asset are “our homes” Councillors work more for their own party than caring rat’s for residents Andrew Newton and Jeff Akehurst saw what was coming but the two times Mayor (one of which was a toss of the coin Mayor) are unfit to run for next election.
May 9, 2016 at 9:23 AM
Been looking at what was promised and not done when the Housing Diversity/Minimal Change Area Policy was implemented in 2003. The “promised but not done” list hasn’t changed.
What’s really interesting is that listed among the objectors in 2003 is none other than Niel & Dianne Pilling of Murrumbeena.
Am wondering what happened to Niel’s knowledge of planning. Objector in 2003, Councillor since 2008, currently serving second term as Mayor surely he gotta have more knowledge than he displays.
May 9, 2016 at 9:30 AM
He understands but has done nothing so he should go.
May 9, 2016 at 9:35 AM
Two years as Mayor @$95,000pa = $190,000. Who else would hire him at this rate?
May 9, 2016 at 10:46 AM
It just shows that some people will do anything for money, like quitting the Greens and joining with the Liberal to vote down anything slightly progressive or Green. The price was right for Pilling
May 9, 2016 at 2:05 PM
Rumour has it, he is so clueless he asked the Greens to endorse him for re-election in the upcoming October Council elections.
The Greens are still laughing.
May 9, 2016 at 5:57 PM
I was likely that Dianne Pilling wrote the objection, as Cr. Pilling wouldn’t scratch his head without asking for the Liberal Partys permission first
May 9, 2016 at 10:13 AM
We’ve had some emails telling us that the authors had no idea that a planning scheme review was taking place. Given that Wynne’s letter also included the need for discussion on how council would consult we point out the advertising for this should have been far more extensive. For example over the past 4 weeks:
1. There is only one half page ad in the Caulfield Leader dated the 12th April.
2. There are 2 full page ads in the Leader for GESAC
This reveals council’s priorities it would seem!
May 9, 2016 at 2:10 PM
You forgot to mention Council’s website.
Funny how Council can spend $13,000+ on their infamously misleading flyer but only forks out for one half page add in the Leader.
May 9, 2016 at 2:45 PM
Speaking of the misleading flyer … has anyone attending the review sessions asked Council to comment on the little they said they could do in the flyer vs. the list of significant items included in the review discussion paper.
May 9, 2016 at 2:53 PM
The following quotes come from the Community Consultation Committee (minutes of 15th December, 2015) –
The committee noted that areas for improvement included community consultation which had dropped from an indexed score of 60 to 56.
Susan McKenna (community representative) sought clarification on Council’s definition of consultation. In the Community Engagement Strategy; consultation is described as obtaining community feedback on analysis, alternatives and/or decisions. This definition reflects the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2), Public Participation Spectrum.
Susan stated that the revised plans for the Booran Road Reservoir development are not currently on the Council website.
Action: Councillors present committed to raising these issues at a future
Assembly of Councillors
May 9, 2016 at 3:00 PM
I guess that’s a no response.
May 9, 2016 at 12:43 PM
The joy of rain – some peace without the ongoing excessive construction noise.