Southbank receives more lip service from the council

Well, here we are at the end of the financial year and the City of Melbourne has handed down its budget for 2024/25. And, once again, it’s somewhat underwhelming from a Southbank perspective.

The key projects for Southbank are again given a cursory allotment for so called “consultation and design”. The key areas which have incessantly been overlooked for many years is the final stage six of Southbank Boulevard (joining the boulevard to the river), Southbank Promenade and the elephant in the room – the City Rd upgrades.

Year in, year out cursory amounts are allocated for this so called “design”. But your Southbank Residents’ Association (SRA) committee is becoming increasingly frustrated with the lip service the council is giving us. Needless to say, we will keep calling them out and holding them to account.

Southbank Promenade and Southbank Boulevard are classic examples of the council dragging its feet. The promenade is one of the main go-to areas for tourists visiting our city, yet it is so tired.

In comparison to other waterside precincts around Australia, it makes us look like a joke. It’s very disappointing that the council doesn’t see this. I wonder if there will be any vigour from the potential new council at the end of this year to actually give it the attention it deserves.

While there are significant allocations for the new Normanby Road Reserve proposal, these funds were already assigned over the past few budgets. However, it will be interesting to see how long it takes the council to actually bring that project to fruition.

Since the budget council meeting was the last for Lord Mayor Sally Capp, we thanked her for her contributions and easy access for our group. We were able to reach her on her personal mobile when we needed her.

Sally also established the quarterly meeting with residents group presidents, which was an initiative SRA promoted to her when she was running for Lord Mayor two terms ago. We were delighted she took that on board and established the group.

Our SRA app is nearing completion. The business community is itching to be able to get their offers in front of our community. Watch this space.

Without membership our advocacy falls on deaf ears. If you are wanting to support us, we would love you to join. •