1.

Meeting Details

Chair: Simon Harvey

Minute Taker: Fran Araneda

Location: Zoom Meeting

2.

Welcome

·       Attendees: Simon Harvey, Fran Araneda, Therese Fitzgerald, Tony Ceddia, John Widmer, David Ettershank, Nikki Gaskell, Sheila Byard, Rohan Leppert, Maritza Araneda.

·       Apologies: Moira Yffer, Geoff Cox.

3.

House Keeping                                                             

August Minutes

·       Confirmed by Therese and Tony.

Correspondence In

·       Email correspondence in relation to the removal/replacement of trees on Fairbairn Drive (old gums being replaced by another species of gums).

·       Action: Simon to contact City of Melbourne (“CoM”) in relation to replacement trees / Rohan also offered to follow this up.

·       A number of residents have complained about the number of truck using Kensington Road (at least one every 10 minutes). Kensington Road is now being used as a major thoroughfare for trucks as well as construction vehicles.

Correspondence Out

·       Nil

4.

General Business & Reports

Treasurer and Membership Secretary’s Report – Tony

·       Funds in: $150 in memberships; Funds out: 2 payments for general expenses.

·       Memberships: $335 was collected this financial year vs. $995 last financial year (28 ‘freebie’ memberships not renewed).

Melbourne Metro Rail Project (“MMRP”) Report – Therese

·       Building a big reservoir at the end of the tunnel.

·       Very noisy, more than when the tunnel was being built, expect this to continue for another month at least.

Moonee Ponds Creek – John

·       140% of last year’s rainfall has now been received.

·       Graffiti remains an ongoing issue (reported to the CoM in January). Ellen Sandell’s questions to Parliament have been effective (graffiti on the CityLink side continues to be removed/cleaned in a timely fashion).

·       John attended an Arden-Macaulay briefing. All of the drawings include bits of the creek that are not currently accessible to the public but are marked as ‘open space’. The scheme makes an attempt to mitigate the potential for flooding with the use of a flood basin near the council works depot. It remains to be seen whether different agencies will co-operate to make the land ‘available’.

·       Litter traps show heavy soil contamination – one wonders how effective they are.

Impact Grant Application (Simon/Maritza)

·       Maritza and Simon have been working on an application for an Impact Grant.

·       Funding will be used to improve community connectivity and collaboration via dedicated IT support (to improve website functionality), questionnaire (to better understand what matters most to the community) and potential for material to be translated to other languages.

·       This will help us to improve the way we communicate with different members of the community by making it easier for the community to understand what is happening in/around Kensington and for us to understand what the community wants/expects from us. It will also help us improve the way we transact and interact with our partners.

Community Liaison Group for West Gate Tunnel Project – Fran

·       Key issue remains soil contamination. Three sites are under review to accept the soil, with the project needing to adhere to new EPA guidelines.

·       Pre-meeting material distributed to CLG members inadvertently included proposal for ‘superloads’ to transport large concrete products via inner west residential streets over the next two years.

·       Meeting became quite heated with community members expressing concern (and disappointment) with the lack of transparency and community consultation on this matter.

·       CPB John Holland Joint Venture (CPBJH JV) explained that the Project is working closely with the Department of Transport and that approvals are still pending. Once truck routes have been approved, community information will be distributed including fact sheet and notifications.

·       Editor’s Note: the proposed route is from Boundary Road, left onto Fairbairn, right onto Somerville Road, right onto the Princes Highway, left onto Cemetery Road, left onto Francis Street and left onto Whitehall Street.

5.

Other Business

Submission for Macaulay Refresh

·       Simon has circulated questions / answers from the CoM. 

·       Submissions due next Tuesday.

·       Action: David to prepare first draft and circulate to the group for feedback.

·       Peter Cassidy and Nikki will be putting in personal submissions on behalf of Bruce Street. Key focus of their submissions will be existing controls vs. FAR (Floor Area Ratio).

·       Sheila expressed concern in relation to the removal of hazardous material at the lofts on Little Hardiman Street about 10 days ago (asbestos removal was undertaken, hidden behind blocked windows with a miniscule sign at the doorway off Bent Street).

·       Rohan confirmed that this issue is everywhere (the Minister and Council re-zoned the area to address this). Council relies on the community to report if builders are not adhering to requirements/conditions associated with the safe removal of hazardous materials. Rohan happy to communicate with council officers and ask them to send enforcement officer to inspect sites if this continues/happens again.

Records Management

·       Tony has circulated a draft plan (to Fran and Therese) on records management. This is particularly important as we move to digital storage vs. hard/paper records.

·       This document will act as a ‘single source’ of truth and will detail how different record types (i.e. sensitive/private/public) are managed and who is responsible for them.

·       Going forward any hardcopy record not electronically available must be scanned or photographed and uploaded to “kenassocinc@gmail.com” for storage in the KA Google Drive account.

·       Benefits: Records will be captured in a manner that supports decision making and meets accountability and governance requirements; will be stored securely, cost-effectively and disposed of in a timely manner; will be protected for legal and historical reasons; will ensure we maintain continuity and ‘corporate memory’. It is also a Consumer Affairs Victoria requirement.

·       Proposing to have a quick catch-up next week and then distribute for further comment.

Council Elections

·       Rohan excused himself for the rest of the meeting.

·       It was agreed that we would prepare and send a questionnaire to candidates (10-15 questions) covering some of the biggest/pressing issues facing Kensington and how they propose to address them.

·       Potential topics/questions include:

o   How will you manage over-development to ensure it will be addressed in a holistic and co-ordinated way?

o   What will you do to ensure the infrastructure is appropriate to meet the updated population/new suburb? What mechanisms will be put in place to ensure we can track this?

o   How do you interpret building height – preferred maximum vs. absolute maximum?

o   How will developer contributions be allocated amongst the community? How will you ensure they remain in Kensington?

o   Issues around traffic noise and air quality;

o   Public/Social housing;

o   Recycling;

o   What will you do to ensure funding is secured for the Moonee Ponds Creek Draft Opportunities Plan?

Other

·       AGM (All) – Ellen will be invited as a guest speaker at the beginning of the meeting (10 minutes for presentation + 10 minutes for questions). Newsletter to be sent which only addresses the AGM (short and to the point).

·       Environmental Infrastructure for Growing Populations (Simon) – An inquiry is being held by The Victorian Legislative Assembly Environment and Planning Committee into the current and future arrangements to secure environmental infrastructure, particularly parks and open space for a growing population in Melbourne and across regional centres. Examples of environmental infrastructure include parks and open space, sporting fields, forest and bushland, wildlife corridors and waterways.

·       Closing date is 28^th of September. John and Simon to draft response.

·       Kensington Women’s Pace Garden (Sheila) – Kensington Neighbourhood House (“KNH”) is hosting a Zoom meeting on the 3^rd of October (10:30am to 12:00pm). It has been advertised in the spring edition of the FlemKen News and on the KNH website. The objective of the meeting is to consider the past and future of the Garden in light of the CoM’s Urban Forest Strategy.

6.

Next Meeting: Monday 5^th of October, 7:30-9:30pm (AGM)