Dear Prospective Councillors
I have been a resident of Notting Hill for 23 years and a resident in the Waverley area for 50 years. We have four voters in our household.
Over the past five or six years, facilities in the Notting Hill area have been depleted and we have felt very keenly the lack of support from the council for our pocket of Monash.
The areas of concern that we have are: lack of public transport to our area, in particular the area nearest the old Monash Secondary School site; the gradual depletion of green space and sporting facilities in the area since the closure of the two school sites and the growing number of units and student hostel-type dwellings that are springing up all over the suburb. As a resident of Waverley for 50 years, I have seen revenue raising take precedence over the good of rate-payers fat too often.
Before the four voters in this household cast their votes in the upcoming elections, we would like to know what you propose to do to support the Notting Hill community, in particular.
Last week I saw four children happily bouncing a basketball down the road leading to Monash Secondary College. A resident called out to ask them where they were going. They replied that they were going to play basketball up at the high school. The resident informed them that the basketball courts had been ripped up. The disappointed children realised that there was nowhere on the estate for them to go. If we are truly concerned about the health and wellbeing of our younger residents, we must put facilities ahead of rate collections.The four voters of this household eagerly await your responses.
Anne Stephens
Stefanie Perri Replies
Hi Anne,
Thank you for your email. Like you, I am a long term local resident, having lived in Clayton (on Clayton Road not far from Notting Hill) my entire life. I’ve attended local schools and university. As a local resident and through my work with local Member of Parliament Ann Barker, I feel that I have a good understanding of our community. Part of this is my understanding that in our community there is a very real sense that our area has been left behind by a very Glen Waverley centric Council. That’s one of the major reasons why I am standing for council – to ensure that the voices of local residents in our area are heard by Council.
I agree that public transport is an important issue for many in our community. I believe our council needs to do more to improve public transport in our community and I will work cooperatively across all levels of government to achieve better outcomes for our area. I’d like to see Council upgrade and extend council’s fleet of buses and ensure that services are responsive community needs. There are many in our community who could benefit from the council’s community bus service but who are unaware of the available services, so I’d also like council to do more to make older residents and residents with a disability more aware of available servcies. Council needs to more effectively engage the community so it listens to what the community needs and is able to feed that back through commercial bus lines to address issues such as timetabling. I’d also like to see the establishment of regular community forums on public transport held by in conjunction with the State Government. I don’t believe either the council or state government can solve this issue alone – it’ll require a cooperative approach across both levels of government if we are to acheive meaningful outcomes. I’m aware of forums that have taken place in Monash before, but none have occurred in our area and I’d like to see that change. These are the kinds of forums where I’d envisage issues such as public transport in the area nearest the old Monash secondary School site could be discussed and fresh ideas developed to improve the situtation.
I also agree that the gradual depletion of green space and sporting facilities in our area is concerning. I am actively involved in the community group that saved the Clayton and Oakleigh Pools, and I understand very well the need to maintain our open spaces and sporting facilities and nurture them so that they continue to be great community assets into the future. I’m very pleased that the Clayton and Oakleigh Pools have been saved, and I realise that while council needs to be financially responsible it also needs to provide facilities and services that meet the needs of our entire community, including our young people. I believe that open spaces for community use is essential and that residents must always come before developers. Council needs to ensure that planning policies match community expectations and this includes the protection of our environment and neighbourhood character and the preservation and enhancement of our open spaces, reserves and waterways. Our community must be given the opportunity to shape how our area will develop into the future.
Your account of the four local children in our community looking for somewhere to play basketball is very telling. I agree that the health and wellbeing of our younger residents must be put ahead of rate collections. I’d like to see Council engage our youth so that young people in our community feel connected and valued in our community and to engage our young people I believe Counncil needs to look at what facilities are being provided for young people, how they can be maintained and enhanced, and what facilities are lacking and how we can work towards the provision of those facilities. I’d also like to see our young people taking part in the planning of future facilities and having their voices heard about how Council can best serve them.
I certainly don’t claim to have all the answers, however I can assure you that should I be elected, I will listen to you and ensure your voice is heard by the council. I will also look for ways that council can do things better – and seek input from the community as to how things can be done better – and I will act on fresh ideas and always act in the best interests of our community by achieving positive results through the establishment of a productive and cooperative working relationship across all levels of government and community.
If you would like to discuss this further and should I be elected, I would encourage you to contact me so we can make arrangements to do so.
Once again, thank you for your email.
Kind Regards,
Stefanie Perri.
Matthew Billman Replies
Hi Anne,
Thank-you for your e-mail.
I live in Oakleigh South, but I too have noticed the neglect that Notting Hill gets in the Oakleigh Ward. I have firstly noticed that Monash City Council appears to be a more Waverley-centric Council and that Oakleigh/Clayton gets a bit neglected over the Waverley areas, but I have noticed that Notting Hill appears to get even more neglected than Oakleigh/Clayton.
I am a public transport worker and I am also a public transport user who has made the choice to not own a car, so I use a mixture of public transport, walking and my bicycle to get around. I am a member of the Public Transport Users Association. I am aware of the rail line to Rowville that was promised 40 years ago and I have been actively campaigning over the past four years to get this rail line built and I will continue to campaign for it until it is taken on by the state government and completed. Much of my campaigning and many of my comments don’t sit well with the company I work for, but I continue to speak out because I believe every resident should have good access to public transport services to give them a choice to leave their car at home.
I was saddened to see the closure of the two school sites and I am scared about the loss of open space in the area. Whilst I hope that the current Councillors have good intentions in standing up for residents rights, I don’t believe enough has been done to raise this issue publicly by them or there does not seem enough lobbying to the state government to ensure open space is saved or increased. It’s hard to determine what work the current Councillors have done because the record of meetings and debates are not made public and the record of public Council meetings are very vague.
What I do know is that at the public Council meeting on August 7th, 2007, where a motion was carried to make a request to the Minister for Planning to authorise Council to prepare an amendment to the Monash Planning Scheme to rezone the former Monash Primary School site from Public Use to Residential use, both Councillors Dimopoulos & McGill did not attend this meeting. At this same meeting, proposals to sell three other portions of public land in the Monash area were also carried. I am a bit concerned that Cr Dimopoulos & McGill were not at this meeting to give their opinions. There’s no public record of their stance. If elected to Council, I will do my best to keep what’s left of Monash’s open spaces and seek to increase it. I will actively lobby to save open space and stand strong with residents on this issue.
I’m 27 and although I haven’t picked up a basketball in nearly 3 years, basketball was a large part of my life for 16 years prior to that playing in the Waverley Basketball Association in Jordanville. To hear that young children in our community can’t get out and keep active lifestyles, especially a sport that I grew up with and love, does not sit right with me and if elected I would work closely with the community to try and get and maintain sporting facilities in the right spots for anyone to access.
While I apologise for this long reply, I hope you can understand where I stand.
As a member of the Greens, it is these issues that you mentioned we stand strongly with you – Public transport, maintaining and increasing open space and providing adequate facilities to enjoy an active lifestyle mean a lot to not just the Greens party, but me personally. Please give me a call on 0400 245 195 if you have any other queries.
Regards,
Matthew Billman
