Inform, inspire and delight

By Jannine Pattison

As the cold weather starts to creep in and the tops of the buildings are shrouded in early morning mist, your committee at Southbank3006 has been hard at work advocating for what matters to you, our members.

Firstly, we are delighted to welcome two new members to the Southbank3006 committee.  It has been fabulous to see how engaged our members are and how many people are willing to volunteer their time to improve our neighbourhood.

A big thank you to all of our members who came along to the recent safety and security forum with Victoria Police Sgt Dinah Tremain. We were delighted with the turn-out and I’m sure everyone would agree that it was a highly informative session. The big take away from the event, was that “if you see something, say something, by calling 131 444”.

May was a big month for the City of Melbourne, which announced the 2022-23 draft budget on May 17, and we encourage all residents to read it and submit your input via Participate Melbourne: participate.melbourne.vic.gov.au

Remember your voice is crucial to shaping the future of Southbank and the City of Melbourne, you can submit feedback until June 14.  A key focus of the council this year is to commit $17m to creating more open space in Southbank with a particular focus on “pocket parks”.  This heralds a significant shift in thinking from large-scale expensive projects (e.g., Southbank Blvd) that drag on for years. Pocket parks will enable the council to improve the liveability of all neighbourhoods across Southbank and at a scale that can be rolled out much faster.

Southbank3006 was privileged to attend the following events on behalf of our members:

• The Community Engagement session with the Department of Transport on May 12
• The Future Melbourne Committee meeting on May 17
• The local Safety Committee Meeting with Victoria Police on June 6

Executive members of Southbank3006 met with Deputy Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece to help him gain a greater appreciation of the unique needs of our neighbourhood and how we can make it a more liveable community.

We can happily report that he was enthusiastic and open to considering ways to work with Southbank3006 as a residents’ group to focus on the social development of Southbank.  Among the issues we discussed was the concept of low traffic neighbourhoods and their role in a comprehensive traffic management strategy for all of Southbank.

So, as you can see, the future for Southbank is looking bright, and we will continue to work hard and more importantly listen to our members and act upon your feedback.

Moving forward we will be running monthly forums where the community can meet and hear from guest speakers across a range of issues.

Our next event will be held on Sunday, June 26 at 2pm at the Assembly Hall, Boyd Community Hub. Our guest speakers will be representatives from the Department of Transport. This will be a great opportunity to come along and hear about the upgrades to the City Rd and Power St intersection.

Don’t forget Southbank3006 is free to join via southbank3006.com and you can follow us on our social pages, Facebook @southbankers3006, Instagram @southbanker3006 and Twitter @SOUTHBANKER3006 where our mission is to inform, inspire and delight. •