We’ve received the following email –
We, the residents of Glen Eira have tried to appeal to the integrity of Glen Eira City Council-we now realise that there is no conscience and no integrity to be found amongst our ‘representatives’
We are witnessing the destruction of our city through overdevelopment. Our homes are deprived of sunlight as the Council ignores our pleas to safeguard our habitable areas and gardens. We are not against developing more housing in our city. However, we would have expected our representatives to research how best to manage that development for the greater good of all. We now know the close relationship our Council have with developers and business (GECC mtg 24/7/18). Residents are not consulted about planning for future growth, but traders and developers are. Logic and reason have been ignored. Whilst the Council and the developers may well have joined together to restructure our city without any concern for the impact on the residents, we seem to have forgotten that the residents of the city of Glen Eira far outnumber the developers and Council. We are now numbering over 150 000.
We need to show our force in numbers…………perhaps a ‘People’s March’ in our streets might gain the Council’s attention.
Past generations established laws to protect the citizens of a democracy. These laws still stand.
We need to review the Statutory Regulations which our council assumes have no relevance to them:
- Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006
- Local Government Act 1989
- Local Government Bill Exposure Draft 2018
- Planning and Environment Act 1987
- Environment Protection Act 1970
We have no time to waste…………each day more streets are taken, residents’ lives are dismantled.
We need now to think collectively……….How can we unite to ensure our voices are heard?
Glen Eira Debates 
July 29, 2018 at 5:16 PM
here here
July 29, 2018 at 11:42 PM
Ha, the age old problem of overcoming apathy, it’s a great question you put out there, and one that has few tangible answers, I think. Glen Eira is more problematic than its neighbouring suburbs when trying to put its residents under the microscope. So I’m making an educated guess that self interest is the driving force behind why Glen Eira slides deeper and deeper into the pit of unsustainable living.
I would say a bulk of GE residents are by nature jump-ups aspirants and are more happy with prospect of the dividend they will receive from property price rises they will gain from all this development. When it comes time to cash out, they will be off like a shot to greener pastures, more than happy with the cash in their pockets.
Glen Eira’s collective dreamtime would be to move somewhere else, somewhere nicer. I see this this daily with my own eyes as another house or two or three are demolished to make way for yet another higher density building.
Here some words or close too, I heard the other day
“Showing people the evidence, doesn’t change their minds, it only makes them more fearful of what’s happening”
July 29, 2018 at 11:52 PM
Well said! Residents come a long way behind business and developers in council’view.
July 30, 2018 at 1:50 PM
Here here also.
July 30, 2018 at 8:14 PM
We do out number developers, 150,00 residents including lots of children, a lot of renters, and multiple property owners. One of our long time councillors owns about 4 or 5 properties in Glen Eira and was exposed for trying to manipulate the heritage listing of one property to achieve a personal gain many years ago, if I remember correctly.
Yes its is a wonder there isn’t more hue and cry, The Elsternwick residents did well in putting dent into the Elsternwick Structure Plan Draft. I’m betting they and Elsternwick will ultimately lose out once the next election is done and dusted and the developers call in their debts from their political puppets.
The revised plan will be back with minor changes and the councillors will hail it again as a master piece, personally thank the bureaucrats again for their wonderful inspired work. Glen Eira councillors laziness and duplicity is legendary but it is rarely noticed by residents and too few care enough even to make a phone call.
Who know how VCAT works behind the scenes are they on the take personally or are they able to be interfered either directly by developers or MP’s. They seem unaccountable to anyone, the Interdependent Crime Commission has said where these condition exist you will find corruption.
The news today say Victoria and passed NSW in economic growth. Both mayor parties are singing off the same song sheet and the song is “jobs and growth” how badly they harmonise and how out of tune they sing doesn’t seem to bother the vast majority of residents in Glen Eira so long as they are in on the final cut.
July 30, 2018 at 8:21 PM
We feel your pain South Caulfield. It is only when all our small protest groups and active residents join forces will we start to put pressure on this council and this has clearly already begun – so well done to everyone who continues to write to council and in these forums.
If we had 1,000 residents across all of GE make a formal complaint to the ombudsmen (and planning minister) that would make a strong statement.
In the meantime, start bypassing your council – join with the Elsternwick campaign and write to your Labor, Liberal and Greens reps – and the Planning Minister. It is a State election year – don’t under estimate this huge opportunity!
July 30, 2018 at 8:38 PM
An interesting comment last Wednesday evening by the developers of the ABC Selwyn St – to be Woollies site (Elsternwick), was when asked why the development is to be so tall, the answer was because of the cost of the site! Chicken or egg?
Unless we, the residents are loud and clear in our disapproval about the high-rise developments going up, they, too tall development, will continue. If a more acceptable development of (say) 4 storeys was proposed, on commercial sites, and allowed to proceed with a speedy build due to the acceptance of the ‘sensitive interface’ (adjacent locals), the developer would get the build fast tracked through, resulting in a rapidly completed project.
The developer also said that Glen Eira needs to accept growth in a strategic site and do its share of new development. As we, Glen Eira residents know from the ABS statistics, Glen Eira is more than meeting its new build share. The strategic document indicated 8 storeys as a maximum build height – totally totally ignored.
The developer also did not bring a heritage consultant to the community meeting………I guess they forgot.
Elsternwick will have Woollies 550m away from Coles – surely a second supermarket could be a little further away from its rival! And what about being on a major link road rather than in constrained surroundings (museum/primary school/plaza). South Caulfield, do you need a(nother) low-rise supermarket? Please have ours!
Why don’t we give a People’s March a go? – what on earth have we got to lose? – think about it!! Everyone bring 5 like minded friends……..
July 30, 2018 at 9:18 PM
Very well said. I totally agree. Why don’t they care about the residents??
July 30, 2018 at 9:33 PM
Here here.
Well said Tony. Couldn’t agree more!
July 30, 2018 at 9:53 PM
Agree with everything everyone’s already said. This is just the start. Council wants to do the same for east Bentleigh and that’s not even considering East Village of at least 3000 new apartments plus 2 supermarkets in one area. How many supermarkets do we really need a stone’s throw from each other.
July 31, 2018 at 6:39 AM
Yet another “here here”, East Bentleigh is being trashed too.
July 31, 2018 at 2:30 PM
Out of sheer curiosity I’ve gone back and looked at some of the papers council published. There were 2 called “Activity centre housing and local economy strategy” one put out in May 2017 and the next one in July 2017. The first May one recommended no changes to south Caulfield or east Bentleigh. Two months later in July both got notched up to large neighbourhood centres and the housing potential changed from “moderate” to somewhere between “moderate” and “high”. No definitions of either terms provided of course and no reasons given for the change. Goes to show how much decision making is based on what happens in private negotiations with developers and where the public is kept at arms length. Then we cop the rubbish about evidence based decision making from councillors who are totally useless.
July 31, 2018 at 3:07 PM
One of many many examples of the lack of integrity on anything to do with planning.
July 31, 2018 at 7:39 PM
I don’t know, if your planning to boost your and your mates bank accounts, this is very good planning, isn’t it.