Southbank Residents Group

Recently there has been a flurry of engagement with Southbank Residents Group (SRG) from the City of Melbourne (CoM), and it is most welcome.

SRG were consulted for the best way to engage the community for feedback on the City Rd redevelopment. It would seem the Council’s presence at Boyd for direct community engagement was a success as there was a remarkable response from the community with some serious problems identified with the current arrangement, which are now on the Council’s radar. 

I applaud the community’s responsiveness as this sends a clear message to the CoM that we are a community that cares about how our neighbourhood is developed. A number of serious issues and excellent initiatives were presented within the responses, which I will be following closely to see how much listening the Council really did! 

I was invited by CoM to attend a two-day social innovation forum titled “Beyond the Safe City”. This forum brought together a cross-section of community stakeholders for their thoughts and experiences, which were collated and will assist Council with their Beyond the Safe City strategy 2014-17. 

This was an excellent opportunity to engage with the broader community and hear the concerns in their communities and also what works and what doesn’t for them. 

This forum has strengthened the relationship between Victoria Police and the SRG. Once again, it was great to see CoM engaging with the community to hear firsthand what our issues are. The report will be presented to Council’s Future Melbourne Committee on the 10th June.

Lastly, if you are a resident in a tower and your tower doesn’t have membership with the SRG, can I ask you to speak with your committee and encourage them to consider membership. 

With the state election approaching, the more members we have the more significant our voice becomes. There are a number of community issues where now is the time to be heard, notwithstanding broader membership benefits.

The committee wishes the community a happy Easter and safe holiday over the Easter and Anzac Day long weekends. Lest we forget!