Activities Chairperson's Report 2020

AGM October 2020

Latest Activities
ACTIVITY: 402 Macaulay Rd 2021
ACTIVITY: Chairperson’s Report 2020
ACTIVITY: Environmental Infrastructure Submission
ACTIVITY: Macaulay Plan Refresh Submission

Activity Chairperson’s Report 2020

Kensington Association Annual General Meeting – October 5^th 2020

Chairperson’s Report

A big welcome to everyone, in particular a big thanks for making an appearance, logging in – kind of attending – this historic occasion, the first ever Kensington Association Annual General Meeting using the Zoom technology! Full credit to you all because – given we are not providing any drinks and eats – you have no ulterior motive! We hope of course that you have a private bottle and plate of hors-d’oeuvres sitting beside you. It is my pleasure to report on my first year as Chair (2019-20), quite an extraordinary year.

Ongoing projects

1. Metro Rail Project:- Work in South Kensington on the Metro Rail Project has been testing for residents and for KA members who have made valiant efforts at holding the contractors to account. In September 2019 RIA enabled residents affected by the noise to move to temporary accommodation. More recently residents in the area have been significantly affected by truck movement in the area, and the diversion of traffic to and from the Lloyd Street Business Estate along Tennyson and Derby Streets. At the time of writing there are very serious issues to resolve in relation to the volume of this traffic flow in the diversion, which the contractors are requesting an extension until September 2021. A big thanks to KA members led by Therese Fitzgerald and other community members who have worked hard negotiating and attempting to resolve issues.
2. Moonee Ponds Creek:- Association meetings continue to include a report by the redoubtable John Widmer on any progress or regression in relation to Moonee Ponds Creek. Despite his efforts and those of many of the members of the Friends of Moonee Ponds Creek, the Moonee Ponds Creek Strategic Opportunities Plan from August of 2019 has not been progressed in any visible way. Of course there are many excuses and reasons why nothing has happened, and perhaps Covid 19 is one of the main ones. KA will continue to advocate for The Creek, and push for the Plan to be prioritised in terms of funding and solving issues of governance. In our submission to a government inquiry into Environmental Infrastructure it is perhaps somewhat ironic that we emphasised how important quality public open space is for community wellbeing into the future, when climate change and a further pandemic may place further strain on our community.
3. Kensington Community Network:- As chairperson I took over from Moira Yffer and attended the KCN meetings which is vital hub of connection for the community. When the pandemic hit KCN has showed its strength, led by Kensington Community House, Unison Housing, and the Vennie, KCN set up health/wellbeing, food supply, and technology sub-committees to support the community. The Network has worked doggedly to pool resources and ideas in that process, as KA’s representative I have been part of that. The Flyer of Hope (see KA website) is emblematic of that effort.
4. Westgate Tunnel Project:- A big thanks to Fran Araneda who has plugged away as KA representative on the liaison group for this project. It is so important that we keep abreast of issues that surround this project, particularly the impact on the Creek and traffic flow in the area.
5. Kensington Recreation Centre Development:- In September 2019 the Association heard some of the initial planning for the KRC. One year later the concept plans are in their final stages.

 Kensington Association Initiatives

6. Kensington Association Website: I would like to thank Luis Barroso of Change Stuff who has done some sterling work on renewal of the website. He has set up the fundamentals of the site that it can move to another stage of utility to KA. Throughout the year he has continued to support us in our learning. We are well on the way, a big thanks to Luis! Thanks should go also to Diana Pawluk who has had a significant hand in keeping the FaceBook page going. We hope to integrate that more with the website in the coming year.
7. Impact Grant (Connected Communities Grant): I chose the title of this grant application – Proactive Community (still not confirmed whether we have been successful). In short the purpose of this grant is to help us do what we do better and in partnership with our community. Watch this space.
8. Liveability Working Group: with the aim of being proactive we have had a few meetings of this group. It’s fair to say that it is yet to ‘find its feet’, but the intention is to focus on the essential issue about which we all care about. I hope it can be a vehicle to ‘rattle the cage’ into the future.
9. Mayor’s visit: in February we had a visit from the Lord Mayor (Sally Capp) to our meeting. This was well attended and provided a basis of further interrogation of and cooperation with the City Council.

Community News and Activity

There are a number of other community activities and news items I would like to mention. First, The Arts Show put on by Rotary in September 2019. I’m sure there was a mammoth amount of work to make this happen, but it was of excellent quality and overall a fantastic community event. I would like us at KA to do what we can to make this an annual feature for the community. Second the ‘Our Neighbourhood Speaks’ forum in November 2019. As far as I know this was one of the first community initiatives to attempt to bridge the Racecourse Road divide between Melbourne and Moonee Valley. I believe it was very worthwhile, and I would like to see further initiative along this line.  This happened because of the broad reach of the KCN. Finally, there were a couple of significant Covid casualties in 2020, The Kensington Community Festival was planned for March but had to be cancelled, and the Young Husband building suffered severe investment withdrawal. We fervently hope that both these community projects will be revived during 2021.

 Community Actions and Representations

Macaulay Structural Plan:- The Association contributed a comprehensive submission to the Macaulay Structural Plan Refresh. The submission included 12 recommendations including. Recommendation 6 (dealing with built form controls in particular) specifically asked for Objective 1 from the Macaulay Structural Plan Refresh be updated to reflect our Recommendations 1-5. A very big thankyou to David Ettershank, Maritza Araneda, and Peter Cassidy for their very significant contributions to that submission.

During the year the Association made substantial representations to two developments. The first in Bruce St South Kensington where we strongly opposed many features of an office development, and the second a residential development at 346-350 Macaulay Rd. We made in person and written objections to these developments, both of which in our view blatantly included significant overreach in terms of the current built form regulations. Unfortunately these may have given us a taste of some of the battles we have yet to fight to maintain the balance, openness and liveability in Kensington.

Environmental Infrastructure Inquiry:- The Victorian Legislative Assemble asked for stakeholder input into this inquiry, primarily about the securing of public open space. The Association made a submission to this inquiry.

Finally I would like to thank all committee members of the Association for their great support to me as the chairperson during the year. Much of that support has come in terms of submission writing – David Ettershank, Fran and Maritza Araneda have been enormously supportive, all others executive members have been supportive, encouraging and patient with me learning the ropes. If I singled anyone out it would be my ‘partner in crime’ Tony Ceddia who has always been available on the end of the phone, an enormously giving and generous young man. A big thank you also to Cr Rohan Leppart who has been a really great local member. His support and advice has been invaluable.

You will find this report, and all other submissions on our website in the next few days.

Simon Harvey (Chairperson) – 2019-20

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