Our action-packed AGM

Well, we have just finished our annual general meeting (AGM) where we heard from Dr Yazid Ninsalam, Associate Dean, Landscape Architecture from the School of Architecture and Urban Design at RMIT University.

Dr Ninsalam spoke of our urban landscape and opportunities. This was most insightful and great the Lord Mayor Nick Reece, and our local member of parliament, Nina Taylor, were there to hear from Dr Ninsalam firsthand. We are hoping they were inspired by his talk and some creative change comes Southbank’s way.

I have always argued the exit from the freeway onto Power St should be celebrated by the City of Melbourne, firstly announcing entry to the city, but also reminding those entering Southbank they are entering the arts capital of Australia.

This entry looks drab and disinteresting. A bit a greenery, and maybe some flowers, would go a long way to making this introduction something memorable and inviting.

The Lord Mayor opened the floor to questions and there were some good ones from our community, mainly around parking and the recent changes. According to the Lord Mayor, nothing is locked in, and feedback will continue to inform the parking team of what is best for the community.

Having said that though, I have been part of community consultation several times over the past five or so years and the community is divided on this. While one group thinks two hours is best to stop visitors being able to use the parking spaces while attending the theatre, as there is plenty of private paid parking, the spaces should, where possible, be available to residents so they have a place for their visitors to park.

While on the other hand there is the argument three hours is required for exactly that reason, to attend a show. I am not sure what the answer is, but I am not paid enough to figure that one out so I will leave it to the council to collate the feedback and ascertain the overwhelming consensus and implement accordingly. But if you have concerns with the parking, please forward your feedback to the council.

And the big news of the night was the soft launch of our Southbank Residents’ Association (SRA) app which is going to connect our local business community with us residents and also give a space for all our community groups, large and small, to have a presence for us all to see and find.

In fact, we missed our AGM last year because we wanted to use it to launch the app and the development was taking much longer than anticipated. We were delighted to be able to do this after so long in development.

This will be a game-changer for how our organisation goes forward, making us sustainable. The anticipated funds this should earn our group will assist us greatly with a smooth and more engaging operation going forward. You may even start to hear from us more frequently.

Watch this space (and your letterbox for our flyer) for the hard launch to the public over the coming weeks. •