Another year has passed us by …

By Tony Penna

President Much of the year being locked down partly explains a year that, in my opinion, has produced little productivity within Southbank.

It has essentially been a year of compounding delays. We have sustained further delays with Southbank Boulevard open space, which is now expected to finally be completed sometime before mid-2022.

Moray St dog park that is also two years overdue, and there has essentially been no progress on the City Road Masterplan, while promenade upgrades are also well behind schedule.

The highlight of the year has been our Southbank – where to from here? Community Forum. While we have yet to see the promises from the forum delivered (Southbank planning audit), what did come from that was a promising budget.

Although much is still yet to be seen with any progress of planning for its expenditure. However, the stand-out was $25 million allocated to create open space.

The horrific truck and pedestrian accident on the corner of City Rd and Power St highlighted the dangers of that corner, but also shone a light on trucks using our streets as their tunnel bypass.

This forced a response from the state government and safety improvements for the intersection.

Going into 2022, the Southbank Residents’ Association (SRA) committee will remain focused on intersection safety, with a specific focus on Kavanagh and Power streets, continue to lobby the council to begin the City Rd upgrade and watch closely for what the $25 million will be used for with creating more open space.

We are expecting to have a new website launched in the first half of the new year. Our big event for next year is anticipated to be the Southbank Community Day which is the postponed event from 2020 which was due to be held the week after we went into our first lockdown.

This is going to be a big task, so if you think you might have some available time to help our committee with preparations, we would love to hear from you. We can be contacted at [email protected].

For those who entered our Southbank Gratitude Competition, thank you for sharing your thoughts. These were a great read and highlighted there is much for us living in Southbank to be grateful for. I want to thank Mary Kay for this great initiative. Check them out for yourself on page 13, I think you will agree! Let’s not take our beautiful neighbourhood for granted, but embrace it for all the great things it has to offer.

Finally, from our SRA committee, we extend our warmest thoughts to our entire community over this festive season and we hope it will offer us all a great opportunity to reflect on the challenges of the past year with planning for a more rewarding and productive 2022.

Please stay safe and renew your spirt. I look forward to engaging with you all again next year. Don’t forget we would love your support by way of membership, our voice is only as loud as the number of members we have. To join visit our website southbankresidents.org.au, it’s only $10 per year •