Council’s Urban Forest Strategy made its first appearance in August 2020. On page 12 of the financial plan we find this commitment:
Urban Forest Strategy Implementation – $3.9M
This is supposed to be over a ten year time frame starting in 2021/2, so an average spend of $390,000 per annum. Whether or not such funding is sufficient begs the question of how much is required in order to ensure the goals of increasing our tree canopy. Nor are residents provided with any indication for the coming years as to what exactly this money will be spent on. By way of contrast, the Moonee Valley budget has set aside $900,000 for the planting of trees this coming financial year! In the Glen Eira budget, trees do not even rate a mention! Instead we have the totally underwhelming allocation of $200,000 for the planting of ‘shrubs’ in already existing garden beds in our public parks!!!!! This is euphemistically labelled as ‘densification’!!!!!
Thus a year on, one could reasonably expect that if council was to live up to its promises for decisive action we would see this reflected in the draft budget and the financial plan. Nothing is further from the truth – sadly.
Glen Eira Debates 
May 3, 2021 at 2:24 PM
The same goes for the climate emergency budget. Plenty of promises but no real and decisive actions and a pittance of money.
May 3, 2021 at 6:33 PM
The budget continues the agenda of this council. Millions on pavilions, sporting fields, and computers. Nothing for pensioners, and the environment.
May 3, 2021 at 7:29 PM
That’s why it is called “Draft” – please wait and see the final budget after community consultation and councillor action. But if you only criticise here nothing will happen – write to the individual coun cillors is the way to achieve change.
May 3, 2021 at 8:38 PM
Here are a couple of points for your consideration Cr Zyngier:
1. We assume that councillors spent quite a few hours on setting the priorities for the draft budget. What is now in the public domain is the result of such deliberations. Furthermore, residents have once again not been provided with the opportunity to state what their priorities may be. Our criticisms are therefore legitimate given what has been published. Councillors have had the opportunity to put their mark on this draft in terms of sustainability and desperately needed growth in our tree canopy. It would appear at this stage, that $200,000 spent on ‘densifying’ shrubs has passed the muster, at least for the majority of councillors. If it were otherwise, then the draft would be vastly different.
2. Past history suggests that very little changes from the draft version to what is finally accepted at the formal council meeting. In living memory only two things have changed in the past 15 years – a vote to drop rate rises from 6.5% to 6.0% and to increase by $150,000 the money allocated to carbon emission targets. Every other recommendation that has come from residents over the years has been ignored. This of course does not mean to say that the same will happen this year, but we are not hopeful that the end result will represent a huge departure from past practice.
May 3, 2021 at 9:38 PM
I agree 100%. Why publish something that common sense tells you is not what people want. How about asking first like where should we spend our money. Open space, trees, and some decent planning has to be top of the chart. From what I can see in this draft these are way down the priority list. Instead we get zillions borrowed and spent on pavilions and questionable redevelopments that serve a few. I don’t want my grandkids being up to their necks in debt so the budget still wants to keep borrowing not 60M this time but 65M.
May 4, 2021 at 8:50 AM
I wish council would change its budget goal of having rates below its peer councils, to gradually increase rates to the average of metro council’s. Aspiring to be average would give funds for many quality of life & environment benefits that are impossible if we aspire to have cheapest & poorest, rates, services & investment. This may require state Govt to allow Glen Eira to aspire to average as rates capped below average grow the gaps.
May 4, 2021 at 11:00 AM
Average rates argument is a furphy. All depends on land value and number of properties in a municipality. Most of Glen Eira would have land value well below that of Toorak, Malvern, Brighton and plenty of other suburbs. Then divide the total by number of rate paying properties and that’s how you get your average as being below these others. None of this absolves council from committing money to what residents see as priorities.
May 4, 2021 at 9:31 AM
Densification is right – “as thick as a short plank”
May 4, 2021 at 11:50 AM
GE could achieve a lot more if they got residents onside. Community working bees in parks to plant trees, I’m sure would see huge turns-outs, families, neighbours and locals all pitching in to improve their local environment and their lives.
I beginning to believe there is a huge nest of climate change denying bureaucrats at the town hall, actively sabotaging any movement forwards in reaching our carbon reduction targets. The CEO needs to root-out these right-wing extremists and send them on there way.
May 4, 2021 at 8:56 PM
Glen Eira is blessed with amazing volunteers working for the betterment of the community. If you want to know more check out Council website. As a Climate Emergency advocate I can assure residents that our staff are well and truly behind the Emergency.
May 4, 2021 at 11:08 PM
Good to hear, I hope you are correct, the draft urban forest strategy didn’t sound like it was written by someone or a team of people that took climate change even slightly seriously. It was a do nothing strategy, that would see the current tree decline continue to grow.
The Draft Glen Eira Our Climate Emergency Strategy mentions many time the number of trees council has planted, and fails to correlate that figure with trees removed. Making the figure look like padding and fairly meaningless.
Will we see community planting trees, this has many advantages, a lot of work can be done in a short time. The community is likely to take ownership of the trees they plant and look after them, resulting in less vandalism and more trees surviving.
Maybe Glen Eira Parks services could swing into action and organise community plantings in streets and parks etc. So many councils do this type of thing. Why not Glen Eira?.
May 5, 2021 at 9:26 AM
Community planting is a great idea. I’m not aware of other councils that do it so could you help me out here. Email me Dzyngier@gleneira.vic.gov.au then I can get some action on this. As to the draft UFS it is being reviewed after receiving very valuable feedback from our resident tree exciter Kerry Gore
May 5, 2021 at 9:07 AM
I haven’t found contacting or working with council a positive experience. Sadly they don’t really listen they just pay lip service.
May 5, 2021 at 10:36 AM
I’m listening!