Southbank Residents Association

What a busy month April shaped up to be, but in many ways a very productive month.

A big congratulations to the Southbank Residents Association committee members and the Boyd staff who managed to pull off one of the most enjoyable community evenings with the trivia night initiative. I would particularly like to thank Nadine Ford from Boyd for her efforts.

Further to this event, mark Thursday, May 19 in your diary and head over to Boyd for a residents’ barbecue from 5pm-7pm. There will be food, music and games. But you will need to RSVP so head to the Boyd website to register.

Firstly, we have received official notice of the widening of the Swan St bridge. This is an exciting project and will help ease some of the City Rd congestion. It is most certainly a welcome development. I have been invited to attend a special information session where the detail will be outlined. I will keep you posted on this.

Something our members and readers know very well that I have been vocal about is Southbanks’ voice being deprived in development applications through council losing its quorum from councillors being conflicted owing to developer donations.  Yes, the very councillors who claim they are representing the people when they were asking for our votes to get elected.

I have questioned the Lord Mayor on a number of occasions about this, only to be informed the law is not being broken. Regardless of what the law says, I say it is wrong!

This council should be leading by example. About two weeks ago this council started to make in-roads on this through a motion by Cr Jackie Watts for all donations to be declared before and after the election. Cr Watts motion was not passed, however an alternative and more detailed motion by Cr Stephen Mayne was passed unanimously – yes that’s correct our Lord Mayor supported it. While much more needs to be done on this issue, it is certainly a great start.

The Southbank Owners’ Corporation Network, convened and run by Southbank Residents Association, was also extremely busy with having to hold an extraordinary sitting to work through the 50-odd pages and some 60-odd questions of the Consumer Affairs Owners’ Corporation Act Review discussion paper.

It has been 10 years since the last review and since owner’s corporations have a massive role in our Southbank livelihood it was imperative that we use this opportunity to have our say. After many long hours of discussion and many more hours to write the submission I can proudly say that Southbank has had a say. I would like to thank all those building OC chair people that contributed to this most important submission.

And just when I felt the pressure wane from meeting the deadline of that submission, another submission hits my email inbox. But this one is most important for all who live in the capital city zone, which includes Southbank.

Last month the Minister has made further amendments to the planning scheme with his proposed C207 amendment, which is now out for industry and community feedback until the end of May.

This amendment will have a massive impact on Southbank for the better. The Minister had previously made C207 an interim amendment creating a plot-ratio height limit. This amendment takes it a step further and addresses street wall height of buildings, setbacks, overshadowing, wind and a number of other important issues. If you are interested to know more please make contact and we can point you in the right direction. Any member of the Southbank community can make a submission and we encourage this.

Lastly, I have met with the designers of the Kavanagh Park development to discuss the stages of their development and what can be offered to the community in the temporary open spaces.

The developers are committed to working with the community to provide amenity right from the onset. I am sure this will be the first of many more meetings to come. As I have said previously, I am very happy with the Kavanagh Park development as this has the potential to not only transform Kavanagh St but also provide the “village feel” that Southbank is lacking.

Our committee is committed to doing all it can to better represent the residents of Southbank. Since the committees’ growth at our last AGM you may have noticed our social media has been more active than ever.

If you want to keep abreast of what is happening in Southbank then please connect with us on our Facebook page - SouthbankResidents. If however you would like to take it one step further and assist our committee or join Southbank Residents Association then please visit our website and complete membership there - southbankresidents.com.au

Tony Penna

President