The silence is deafening

I am still trying to consolidate our March community forum “Southbank: Where to from here?”, whereby we essentially learnt that the council has not had a working plan for Southbank and, apart from the projects currently underway and those that we know are slated to start at any budget now (City Road Masterplan), there is no further vision.

We learnt the Southbank Structure Plan, supposedly a 30-year vision for Southbank, is far from anything the community should be building its hopes on.

I was hoping to be able to add to the outcomes of the forum in this month’s column.

For those who were present or have since watched the event on our Facebook page, you will recall the supposedly four-yearly review of the Southbank Structure Plan was taken on notice as to whether that was undertaken.

To date I have heard nothing more from the council, which I am finding very disappointing.

In any case, after council officers’ failure to essentially answer any of the many questions I posed to them at the forum, I would have thought they might have taken the initiative to have reach out and at least elaborate the council’s position.

An indication as to the council’s commitments to the future vision of Southbank will be in the four-year budget.

While we know there is still a significant amount of money to be spent on Southbank Boulevard and City Rd, which will no doubt be significant components of the four-year budget, it will be interesting to know if there will be any budget allocations to other lead-in initiatives.

This is due to be released in May, so I will be watching closely to see where we will be positioned.

What I do know is that the council is committed to precinct reviews, as was mentioned by the Lord Mayor. What this will look like, I am not sure.

But I know they are putting this process together at the moment.

However, I have received a commitment from the council for any future forums our community would like to hold. If you have any specific ideas, please let us know.

I also met with the Deputy Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece for a walk around City Rd, Fawkner St and Kavanagh St.

I was wanting to highlight the impact of trucks on the City Rd and Power St corner where the trucks often ride over the footpath encroaching on pedestrian space as there is very little room between the corner of Southbank Grand and the road edge.

We discussed the narrow width of the Kavanagh St footpath in front of Southbank Place at 60 Kavanagh St, the congestion on Fawkner St and the safety of pedestrians crossing the roads to access Woolworths.

It was a productive meeting and highlighted these areas of concern to him that he wasn’t previously aware of. Hopefully this is the start of discussions for future planning.

Just another reminder that our annual general meeting (AGM) will be in the coming months.

We are looking for interested and motivated members of our community who may be interested to join our committee and contribute to bettering Southbank and holding the government to account.

If you have a curiosity as to what we are about, please reach out and attend one of our committee meetings to get a first-hand account of how engaged we really are.

I can be contacted at [email protected] to find out when we will next meet.

If you would like to support the work of Southbank Residents’ Association, membership is only $10 per year. Without members, we essentially don’t have a voice •