Welcome to 2024, Southbank

We trust that everyone was able to find some downtime over the break to recharge for hopefully an exciting 2024.

The Southbank Residents’ Association (SRA) committee certainly has lots planned for the year ahead and we are looking forward to hitting the ground running.

This year will certainly keep us on our toes, particularly the launch of our community app, Civitas, which is expected in the coming month. 

Later in 2024 will see the City of Melbourne council elections. We always find elections to be a big focus as they draw nearer, and we don’t expect these elections to be any different.

Naturally our big focus will be the launch of our community app which is going to be filled with special offers from our local businesses. The developer has been busy putting this together and local businesses are excited with how this can assist them with reaching out to our community. 

We have been busy canvassing all Southbank businesses and so far of all the businesses that we have spoken with all are committed to be a part of it. There will be some exceptional offers from some very generous businesses. We anticipate members will get their membership fee back with saving from their first couple of redemptions.

We are also taking a keen interest in the progress of the proposed pedestrian safety initiatives canvassed by the City of Melbourne at the end of last year. You may recall my November column where I was scathing about how the council asked for community feedback, yet the selected projects didn’t correlate with the feedback received. 

We will be working hard to ensure these works are completed in a timely manner and to keep pressure and focus on the sites which the community highlighted needed attention.

Of growing concern, and to many in the community, is the traffic on the corner of Power and Kavanagh streets. There are many issues with this intersection and the traffic flow. 

We are also very mindful there are still a further four towers to be built as part of the Melbourne Square development which is going to add unprecedented additional traffic volumes at this intersection. We certainly don’t have the answers, but we will be working closely with the Department of Transport to investigate possible solutions.

We are also going to keep pressure on the council to finish the works on stage one of Southbank Promenade. You may recall, late last year the council announced the completion of this project, yet in reality is was far from finished (based on their initial stage one masterplan) and we received a response from the Lord Mayor at the Southbank Future Melbourne Committee meeting (after we raised this issue) that there was a misstatement from council officers, and the Lord Mayor agreed that more still needed to be done. 

The condition of the promenade is a blight on our riverside precinct and compared to other such precincts around Australia, it’s an embarrassment.

Our AGM will be towards the end of the year. As usual, we are always in need of volunteers to assist us with our committee deliberations and works. If you have an interest in what we do and how you could contribute, we would certainly love to hear from you. We can be reached at [email protected]. •