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 submission to the State Government re changes to the Local Government act can be found here – SubmissionToStateGovt5-5-16
The Andrew’s State Government has initiated a ministerial review of the Local Government Act and the City of Melbourne Act. The review is due to report next year and changes will not be implemented prior to teh October 2016 election.
The MSYRG believes that there is an urgent need to implement changes to the Act before the next municipal elections
The Andrews Victorian government has commenced a review of the residential zoning law introduced by the previous Liberal government.
The existing law introduced by Mathew Guy, and in particular the new Neighbourhood Residential Zone with its mandatory height limits, provides us for the first time a solid basis for preventing inappropriate development in our heritage areas.
It is essential that the certainty afforded in the Guy review is not lost or watered down by the new review.
Our Submission:
PUBLIC MEETING
Date: Monday 1 FEBRUARY
Time: 6.00 PM
Location: SOUTH YARRA PRIMARY SCHOOL
The attached letter from David Davis MP provides details of this meeting to which all residents and interested persons are invited.
This is not a political meeting but one organised by the PUNT ROAD ACTION GROUP/DROP PUNT which is opposed to the proposed widening of Punt Road.
The Melbourne South Yarra Residents Group Inc. also opposes the widening.
To learn more, add your views or support the action group you should attend this meeting.
MSYRG
The meeting with the Planning Minister on 2 July was a worthwhile introduction and example of the contribution that can be made when the inner city resident groups speak as one on important issues.
Enclosed is our report of that meeting.
It will be followed up with a letter of thanks and requesting that the view of residents as well as councils be sought on the rezoning changes made by Guy Matthews.
We must continue working together exchanging information and promoting issues that are important to all of us.
Best wishes,
Michael Butcher
President
MSYRG.
Report on meeting with Richard Wynne on 2 July 2015 Submission to Richard Wynne -final15.06.15[2]
ClemNewtonBrown-PlanningZoneReform-Hansard Extract
Clem will be available to speak to residents this Saturday June 21,2014 at 11.30am on the corner of Domain and Park streets
_________________________________________________
Clem Newton-Brown MP
Member for Prahran
At the City of Melbourne (COM) council meeting on 3 June more than 100 ratepayers (including MSYG members) attended to complain that they had not been given an opportunity to consider and discuss the final report by the Council planning department for the rezoning of the residential areas (including South Yarra) provided for under recent state government legislation.
This was a particularly important meeting because of the imminent introduction of new residential planning classifications. The MSYRG and many residents had advised the COM that the Neighbourhood Residential Zone (NRZ) classification, a classification that provides the strictest protection against inappropriate development and building, is the only appropriate classification for many areas within our suburb of South Yarra. Areas where heritage and neighbourhood character are important features warrant the protection afforded by the new controls in an NRZ zone.
Council was slow to take up the opportunity and failed to include NRZ in a number of obvious South Yarra streets either because they failed to understand the purpose of the legislation, applied the legislation incorrectly or made mistakes due to running short of time to make an adequate and thorough assessment.
There was an admission at the meeting that Council officers ran short of time to adequately conduct a thorough consultation process with the community due to pressure to conduct and finalise other work within the COM (East-West tunnel related activities).
The MSYRG and other resident Groups within the COM felt that it was a very disappointing consultation process to say the least.
However, we are continuing to prosecute our strong belief that a NRZ classification is largely correct for important areas of South Yarra and preparing submissions to the government committee that will have the final say.
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