Latest Newsletter July 2020
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OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
Greetings to all subscribers
Newsletter JULY 2020
The June ‘special edition’ of this newsletter sent out a call to anyone with planning expertise to assist the Association. A big thanks to anyone who replied, I was heartened by the response, I have kept your name and contact details and will through some issues your way as they come up. I also put out a call to any residents to support our scrutiny of developments and, if required, to lodge objections. All those I have spoken to since that time have shown they understand the value of what we do at the Kensington Association; again, that is heartening.
Kensington Association Membership
We are now into the new 2020-21 financial year so membership renewals are due. If you are a member of the Association we ask you to continue your support for us by renewing your membership; if you are not yet a member it would be great to have you ‘on board’. We have three annual membership types: Family ($20), Individual ($15) and Concession ($10). At present our payment method options are:-
(1) Direct Debit (Kensington Association, Bendigo Bank, BSB 633000 Account: 150590735) or (2) by cheque mailed to The Treasurer, Kensington Association, PO Box 1208, Kensington VIC 3031.
Please include name, address and contact details when renewing or joining. We are in the middle of arranging a Credit Card option for payment; I will notify you when this is available, almost certainly next month on the Kensington Association website.
It’s timely to say something about the significance of membership. The first paragraph of the Kensington Association ‘Roadmap’ reads – “we plan to work together with our community …….. to guide our suburb on a road of health, sustainability, and liveability. The ‘engine room’ of the Kensington Association is our monthly meeting. We agenda items relevant to the monitoring, protection, and enhancement of the amenity of Kensington. We listen to the concerns of both individuals and organisations, and where possible we lend our support and experience to address their concerns.”
Most recently we have decided to form a ‘Liveability Working Group’, as a vehicle to help us be more proactive – because we need to be! I warmly invite any member of the community to join us in this! There is a question that forever hovers in my awareness as Chairperson of the Association, that is – ‘Are community members really able to shape the environment in which they live?’ I invite you to join us, in some capacity, to help us do the best we can.
What’s Happening?
You may recall my report in the May Newsletter on a development proposal on 346-350 Macaulay Road (corner of Stubbs and Macaulay – ex Vision Aust building). This proposal has unfortunately been agreed to. I say ‘unfortunately’ because of its size (426 apartments and 500+ parking spaces); we at the Association believe this sets a terrible precedent for development in this block, throwing any realistic population predictions out the window, and potentially having dire consequences for the level of congestion along Macaulay Rd. This is an example of where … ‘community members were [not] able to shape the environment in which they live’. Unfortunately, with Covid19 the cards are stacked against us right now. In a recent press release the Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas was touting this development as an example of ‘job creating building projects … to kickstart the economy’.
This challenges us to do everything we can to make sure that the other (even larger) landholdings in the Macaulay, Robertson, Barnett, Stubbs block – (I call it the MacRoBarSt block) are (sometime in the not too distant future) developed with an eye to liveability, sensible population, and good community infrastructure.
Questions to the City of Melbourne (CoM)
On June 29th at the Future Melbourne Committee the CoM passed its 2020-21 budget. At the budget meeting the Kensington Association tabled the following questions, which followed up on a previous submission about public open space:-
“In relation to the Macaulay Structural Plan, in the committee’s response to our submission it was noted that the new Structural Plan(s) … ‘will provide new open spaces in both areas, by negotiation with land owners and through development contributions’…. we would like to ask two questions in relation to this. Firstly, what is the mechanism through which this will be done? Because it is not transparent, and without clarity this statement means nothing! Secondly, given that the amount of public open space is closely connected to population density, to what extent is the committee remodelling their population predictions, and most importantly, how is this connected to planning for community infrastructure?”
I’ll report on the answer to these questions in the next Newsletter. In the meantime, make sure you connect to – participate.melbourne.vic.gov.au/macaulay-refresh – and take any opportunity to have input into the planning process.
For members wishing to attend Kensington Association meetings, they occur on the first Monday in each month, at present via Zoom. Next meeting is on July 6th at 7.30pm.
Minutes of the June meeting and the agenda will be on the Association website on Saturday July 4th. Below is the login for the July meeting.
Very best wishes to all Newsletter subscribers
Simon Harvey on behalf of the Kensington Association
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