Councillor Kay Meadows

Concerns regarding process raised with Yarra City Council, Thursday 11 November 2004.

Thursday 11 November 2004

Councillor Kay Meadows Mayor, City of Yarra by email:

Dear Madam Mayor

Re: PL03/1407 132-172 Smith Street and 63-71 Little Oxford Street, Collingwood

We write regarding recent correspondence and conversations with you regarding the planning application above.

The Collingwood Action Group (CAG) is extremely disappointed with the City of Yarra’s failure to respond formally to our letter of 22 October, 2004 in which we advised our position on the meetings with the Applicant and Council, and our frustration at Council’s apparent lack of a position on this matter. In our view your verbal advice that Council is ‘waiting for the Applicant’ is completely unsatisfactory.

It appears there is an impression at the State Government level that Yarra Council has this matter in hand. In response to our letter to the Minister for Planning requesting that she intervene, her department advised that while they are aware ‘that the Yarra City Council has not yet made a determination on this matter‘ in view of the process which is currently in train, it would be inappropriate for the Minister to intervene in this matter’ (correspondence dated 27 October 2004). Based on our research in the local community, that is a misapprehension, created by the expiry of the statutory period for Council to make a decision, which has now been drawn out for months.

We also wish to restate our position that it is a local government responsibility to undertake public consultation on planning matters (correspondence dated 27 September 2004) and to condemn Council for abrogating its responsibility to the community in this regard. As we have made clear in the past, we stand ready to assist here but do not believe that community groups should be used to fill a consultation vacuum.

Previously we requested that the City of Yarra ‘develop a communication strategy for public consultation about the above planning application’ and asked that this be done by early October. It was to include these features:

• comprehensive and current information posted weekly on the City of
  
• Yarra website, including links to any relevant Council documents on matters pertaining to the planning application, links to the Collingwood Action Group website, links to media reports on this planning application, a precis of the report Inner urban conservation and development;


• reports or paid advertisements on progress in every edition of the local press, including Melbourne Times, Yarra Leader, and Fitzroyal Mail;


• formal and regular communication with the 1500 objectors to the
  application.

Council’s response (dated 4 October 2004) stated that it ‘would be pleased to accommodate regular updates on the process and application and provide a link to relevant websites’. This seems to imply that it is the community’s role to provide material for public dissemination, which is unsatisfactory. Further, there was no response from Council regarding communicating with the 1500 objectors, a statutory requirement of the responsible planning authority. The above points have been largely ignored.

At our meeting with Council officers and elected members (on 14 October 2004) we provided a copy of our motion that inter alia stated ‘CAG believes that the next step in the process should be for Council to urgently commence an information and consultation campaign strategy with appropriate time frames that reaches the wider community, especially targeting the 1500 who objected to the planning application, and make this public’. This has not triggered any response or action from Council. This situation is unacceptable.

We have written to our Ward Councilors expressing our concerns about Council’s failure to formally respond to us, and have been advised that they have requested this matter be raised at the next Council meeting. We would appreciate if previous correspondence from CAG could also be tabled. Our Ward Councilors have also been advised that we have indicated to you the importance of now moving ahead with broader consultation and further work on Structure Plans. We intend taking up these and other issues related to this planning application with our State Member, Richard Wynne.

At CAG’s public meeting in August, you stated that ‘a decision will be made’ on this planning application. We ask you now, on behalf of the Yarra community and all who enjoy the amenity of Smith Street, for a formal indication from Council of when a decision will be made.

Yours sincerely

Cliodhna Rae
Spokesperson

cc Hon Mary Delahunty, Minister for Planning
Richard Wynne, State Member for Richmond
Councillor Deborah Di Natale
Councillor Greg Barber
Lydia Wilson, CEO, City of Yarra;