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Southbank Residents Association

Southbank Residents Association
Tony Penna

We are well into the silly season now and while everyone is go go go, the City of Melbourne (CoM) has been busy too.

Recently the CoM hosted a garden party in front of the ABC studio on Southbank Boulevard which in a way officially kicked off the public consultation for the transformation of Southbank Boulevard into large swathes of open space.

This appeared to be a great success with residents and resident pooches heading on over to enjoy the temporary dog park and events that were put on for the day, while CoM staff were busy conducting surveys.

This is a magnificent project for Southbank so I ask all residents to embrace the consultation and either make your thoughts known on the Participate Melbourne website (participate.melbourne.vic.gov.au/southbankboulevard) or, for those who enjoy being more interactive, to RSVP for the community workshop on Saturday, December 12 (register via the Participate Melbourne website link).

While on the topic of open space, a number of us have been watching closely for the Boyd Park project to commence. As many of you are aware, the CoM began public consultation on what the space should look like and the interim report was expected to be released in September. I was disappointed to learn, however, that the CoM project team have advised the report has been postponed until mid-2016.

Last week in the public question session I asked council the reason for the delay. The Lord Mayor responded that some funding had been withdrawn from the developer for the 30-storey tower at the rear of the site which had led to the delay.

There was no mention as to when the development would be back on track (although I am not sure if it was ever on track since it is years overdue). I am concerned this might mean the project may not even eventuate, as it was apparently dependent upon the developer proceeds from the sale of the apartments.

Given that the community was overwhelmingly opposed to its sale at the time, perhaps this could be an opportunity for the CoM to reclaim the block of land and make it public open space. I thought this was worth mentioning.

A small point of note, if you haven’t already noticed, is that we have had a small name change. Recently at a special general meeting, a motion was unanimously passed to change our name from Southbank Residents Group to Southbank Residents Association.

We also have a new logo to go with that - check it out on our Facebook page – southbankresidents and if you haven’t already, “like” us while you’re there to keep abreast of what’s happening in our neighbourhood.

Well once again, that is another year from Southbank Residents Association. We truly appreciate the following we have – on Facebook, my newspaper column and, most importantly, our dedicated members who stand right beside us with their support by actively joining this volunteer not-for-profit community association. If you too would like to show your support and become a member, please visit our website at www.southbankresidents.com.au.

We have an action packed year ahead with some exciting new projects, so keep a look out and let us know of your thoughts and ideas for the community.

From the entire committee, we would like to wish you a delightful Christmas break and a joyous New Year. May 2016 be the start of something new and great in everyone’s life.

A special thanks goes out to the editor of Southbank Local News for his wonderful support throughout the year. See you all in 2016!

Tony Penna

President

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