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Secretary MSYRG

Jul 03
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Melbourne Metro Rail submissions update

By Melbourne Metro rail
METRO  RAIL  PROJECT  SUBMISSIONS
The Melbourne Metro Rail Authority (MMRA) has published its Environmental Effects Statement and the draft response by the City of Melbourne can also be accessed at the following URL by clicking on this link:
It provides useful information about the proposed Domain Station,  and the course of the project through South Yarra. The document will be considered by Council at its meeting next Tuesday 5th July as the submission must be lodged by 6 July. Review the index at the beginning of the document to see the several areas relevant to South Yarra.
The MMRA will be holding a public inquiry on these issues in August/September this year.
There is little more that can be done before the Public Inquiry, but remember that as a result of our and other submissions, we now have the MMRA assurance that Fawkner Park will not be involved in the tunnelling process.
We have requested a senior MMRA representative come to our Annual General Meeting
on 17th November to provide us with more information about how
the construction phase is likely to impact upon residents of South Yarra.
Jun 30
Love2

Theft of mail in South Yarra area.

By Crime

All MSYRG members,

MSYRG is passing on an alert about a very concerning incident that took place in the Domain precinct last week. It was reported by a local resident.
Several members have observed a young man  taking residents’ mail from mailboxes, opening said mail in another location and dumping the opened envelopes and contents.

The potential for loss of credit cards or other personal information is a concern.

It has been reported to the Police.

We  suggest you report any incident to the Prahran Police-phone 9520 5200,

Jun 16
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FAWKNER PARK SAVED FROM METRO RAIL

By Melbourne Metro rail
We are delighted to inform everyone that submissions from the MSYRG and the community have been listened to by the Melbourne Metro Rail Authority, and we have just been advised that no tunnelling or activity will take place on Fawner Park except for the formation of an emergency access shaft in the north east corner. We understand this will leave small building over the shaft and is likely to be in the vicinity of and be combined with the existing public toilet.
It is the best possible outcome and protects the park and also the Child Care and Senior Citizens Centre and tennis courts from substantial disruption.
Furthermore, it means the residents of South Yarra will not be impacted by major drilling activity and associated trucks in the vicinity of Fawkner Park for what seemed likely to have been a period of about 5 years.
Thank Heavens!
Melbourne South Yarra Residents Group Inc.
16/6/16
May 28
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COM Heritage Policy review

By Uncategorized
Despite our submissions to Council during the course of the review of its heritage policy, the resulting draft  failed in our view to achieve the necessary protections for South Yarra. Accordingly, enclosed is our response to that draft dated 3 March 2016. –
Following discussions with Councillor Rohan Leppert who we briefed and who took a supportive interest in the issues, a meeting was arranged with the senior planners handling the matter for Council. In particular, the President of MSYRG Michael Butcher and local resident Paul McSweeney, met with Robyn Hellman, who is a senior administrator dealing with Planning Scheme amendments.  Attached is our letter to her dated 16 May requesting specific changes to the draft as it affected South Yarra.
Read this letter here – HellmanLetter16-5-16
We are yet to receive a reply from Ms Hellman, however Councillor Leppert will speak to us at our member’s meeting on 9 June 2016 about these important issues affecting South Yarra.
Cr_Leppert
Councillor Rohan Leppert
May 28
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City of Melbourne Act review and Council Elections

By Local Government, Melbourne City Council, Planning, State Government, Uncategorized
Readers will recall that when the State Government announced a review of the Local Government Act and City of Melbourne Act we lodged a submission in December last year requesting an urgent review of the law relating to the forthcoming City of Melbourne elections to be held in October this year.
The City of Melbourne has its own, unique, Act that governs the way that the COM operates. The Local Government Act covers other non-COM councils.
The MSYRG said we did not want a repeat of the 2012 elections when Mayor Doyle and his team received over $400,000 in donations from property developers and others with the resulting taint of undue influence and corruption.
The usual outcome of this large scale conflict of interest by Doyle ticket councillors is that a quorum at important planning meetings is not achieved because those on the ticket have had to remove themselves from participating in the matter they are conflicted upon. This has the effect that rather than the matter being deliberated by councillors, supported by submissions from members of the public at an open meeting, a relevant planning matter is dealt with administratively behind the scenes by officers of the City of Melbourne. Open discussion is effectively stymied and untoward outcomes ensue.
Ratepayers expect that Councillors will do their job and contribute in a fair and equitable manner to critical council meetings and not be struck out because they have accepted donations from entities that are seeking planning approval from the COM.
Despite further requests from us particularly following the reported offer by Councillor Ong to pay the Lord Mayor $200,000 to be part of his team at the coming elections, nothing has been heard from the Minister for Local Government.
We were eventually able to arrange a meeting with the Minister’s senior local government adviser where we again pressed for change, including to the law relating to donations, but it is now clear no change will be made in time for the 2016 Council elections.
Attached is our further submission relating to proposed changes to certain regulations relating to the coming elections and our letter to the adviser following our recent meeting.
We have also been attending Council meetings that allow questions from members of the public and have been pressing Lord Mayor Doyle to refuse donations from property developers and to to disclose all donations as they are  received. Doyle has refused to provide assurance that he will not accept developer donations and and his responses to this important matter upon direct questioning have been sadly inadequate with much ongoing deflection of central arguments relating to clear and transparent processes.
Our letter to the Minister for Local Government can be found here – Hutchins
Our submission to the State Government re changes to the Local Government act can be found here – SubmissionToStateGovt5-5-16
Mar 21
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Number 8 Tram

By Public Transport

Representatives of the Group in particular the President, Michael Butcher, have had meetings with Yarra Trams and Public Transport Victoria over the last 12 months. We have been assured on a number of occasions that no decision will be made to change the No. 8 tram without discussion with the MSYRG. We have continued to write to to YT and PTV confirming this assurance. We will keep this website updated with information as it comes to hand.