My Internet Journal is designed to provide details on my role as a Councillor for the City of Maroondah and my involvement within a variety of community organizations.
You can also subscribe to updates to stay informed in regard to community and council activities and how I am making a difference for the Mullum Ward and the Maroondah community.
Your comments and thoughts are welcomed and encouraged.
This evening I attended an information session for parents prepared by Maroondah’s Youth Services Team, which outlined the events hosted through the EV’s Youth Centre in Croydon.
The Information Session had a particular emphasis on the FReA program which consists of twelve young people who are responsible for organising and managing musical gigs at EV’s, including promotion, stage management, signing of bands and catering. This year’s FreeZA group have called themselves Amplified Productions and have already organised a number of events, including the youth stage at the Maroondah Festival.
The information session concluded with the indie artist night organised by Amplified Productions. The evening predominately featured local bands allowing these groups to be seen and heard by their local community.
EV’s holds a number of programs available for Maroondah’s youth, for more information please visit www.evsyouthcentre.com.
This evening’s Eastern Transport Coalition (ETC) meeting focused on the seven key focus areas including:
A series of factsheets are being prepared to highlight the importance of these priorities. The ETC will be utilising a number of opportunities, including the Melbourne 2030 audit, to demonstrate the importance between integrating land use planning and transport.
In regard to the federal funding campaign, the ETC will be sending a delegation to Canberrra to seek an audience with the Minister and Shadow Ministers for Transport. The Federal Parliament’s Sustainable Cities Inquiry highlighted the need for a national approach for urban transport to assist in mitigating rising congestion costs and greenhouse emissions.
While this may give the appearance of shifting responsibilities from the State to Federal Government, it in fact ensures a greater level of accountability. For example, if the Federal Government provided partial funding for the triplication of the rail line to Ringwood it would prevent the State Government from backing away from its 1999 promise to deliver the third track.
Australia remains the only OECD nation where the Federal Government does not provide funding for urban public transport infrastructure, with cities around the world investing heavily in public transport Australia runs the risk of being left behind reducing our international competitiveness.
Category: Eastern Transport Coalition (ETC),Maroondah
This morning I was invited to speak to the Croydon Stroke Support Group about my role as a Maroondah Councillor and to hear any concerns raised by members.
The discussion focussed strongly on Maroondah’s footpaths and the needs of pedestrians. Maroondah Council recently passed a Pedestrian Strategy which provides a framework to address the lack of footpaths within parts of the municipality. The Pedestrian Strategy will be reinforce by a Footpath Construction Policy which will enable Council to facilitate new footpaths particularly within areas that connect to schools, shops and public transport.
The Pedestrian Strategy also sets new standards in regard to footpath maintenance which will lead to an ongoing improvement to the condition of footpaths within Maroondah. This will lead to reduction in cracked and uneven footpaths making it easier for people to walk throughout Maroondah.
A number of concerns were raised in regard to the lack of adequate time to cross traffic lights, particularly in roads such as Maroondah Highway and Warrandyte Road. Unfortunately many of these roads are under the jurisdiction of VicRoads but council and myself personally have been advocating for longer pedestrian cycles to make it safer for people to cross the road. It is imperative that VicRoads listens to the community and realises that is responsible for the needs of pedestrians as well as vehicles.
The Croydon Stroke Support Group provides a support network for people who have suffered a stroke andprovides a range of activities for members, including guest speakers and social outings. It was a pleasure to speak to the group and I look forward to further discussions as we seek to improve the mobility of Maroondah.
Category: Community Engagement,Maroondah
On the 12th and 13th of June I attended the third Future for Local Government Summit which was convened by the Municipal of Association of Victoria.
These summits are designed to help pave the way for local government within the 21st century.
I have prepared a written report for this summit which I will table with my delegates’ report.
Lastly, I would like to report on a public meeting held last Friday in regard to the park located at 47a Maidstone Street in Ringwood. The meeting organised with the assistance of the local community allowed me the opportunity to hear first hand the concerns over the proposal to sell this park. Despite the icy cold weather the meeting exceed all expectations with over 60 residents bracing the fierce weather to ensure to that they were able to voice their thoughts on this proposal.
The residents also provided a petition with over 150 signatories objecting to this proposal. I have lodged this petition as an objection to the proposed sale of the park at Maidstone Street.
I would like to commend Heidi Victoria, the Member for Bayswater and the local community, in particular Beverly Yen and Patricia Reidy for organising the meeting. It provided a crucial opportunity to hear concerns first-hand and to address the issues that were raised.
The Herald-Sun has reported on the worsening condition of Melbourne’s train network, as overcrowding and cancellations continue to increase.
MELBOURNE’s overcrowded train network is bracing for more than 156,000 extra commuters a day — with just 10 new trains set to ease the load.
The State Government has failed to adequately plan for Melbourne’s public transport needs with passengers continuing to experience overcrowding.
Public Transport Users Association spokesman Alex Makin said new trains would be welcome but would not meet the demand.
He said the trains could hold about 900 people per trip but he believed the Government would have to buy more rolling stock just to keep up.
With an era of rising petrol prices it should have been abundantly clear to the State Government that patronage growth would occur. Furthermore with the State Government’s goal of 20% public transport modal share by 2020 it should have comprehensively planned and delivered improvements inline with such growth.
“There has been very little proper planning. The Government has simply been reacting when there is a crisis,” he said.
“There is a strong demand for public transport, particularly in light of rising petrol prices.”
While the rail system and public transport overall is experiencing significant growth, modal share, (the proportion of trips taking by public transport versus cars) has remained relatively static. The State Government must begin to proactively manage Melbourne’s public transport system rather than simply lurching from one crisis to another.
This morning, along with Heidi Victoria, the Member for Bayswater, I spoke to residents at Maidstone Street Park in Ringwood to discuss the current council proposal and the best way to stop the sale from proceeding.
Despite the extremely cold conditions and a temperature of less than eight degrees, approximately 60 residents attended this meeting to demonstrate firsthand the importance of this unique community park. While Proclamation Park may be located in close proximity, it does not provide the same community atmosphere of the park located at Maidstone Street.
I would like to thank the many residents who attended the meeting and asked questions about the Council process. I will be lodging a petition, signed by residents who are wishing to see the park retained, at Monday’s Council meeting.
I have publicly stated my support for the sale to not proceed and I will be voting against the proposed sale. I encourage all residents who wish to see the park retained to issue an objection to council by the 6th of July. Objections need to include a name and address and can be emailed directly to me at alex.makin@maroondah.vic.gov.au or via post to Council at PO Box 136, Ringwood 3134.
The Outer East Voices project is a jointly initiative between the Migrant Information Centre, VicHealth and with a partnership including the Cities of Maroondah and Knox. The project, aimed at both primary and high school students, allowed young people to meet other people from diverse communities to promote friendship and to learn skills in filmmaking and digital imagery.
The outcome of the project, a DVD which interviewed school students on diversity and views of Australia, was launched at EV’s Youth Centre to showcase the skills demonstrated by the young people involved in the project. The DVD will be used to discuss issues such as friendship, identity and multiculturalism within the school curriculum.
The launch included presentations from the participants of the program, who demonstrated the skills and experienced gained through the project and allowed them to talk about their experiences living in eastern Melbourne. The DVD will be available from the Migrant Information Centre within the next month.
The Eastern Transport Coalition has made a submission to the East-West needs Review calling on the State Government to fix Melbourne’s capacity and congestion issues by expanding the public transport network.Councillor Alex Makin represents Maroondah City Council on the Eastern Transport Coalition and says the Coalition is calling on the State Government to fix Melbourne’s capacity and congestion issues by expanding the public transport network.
“The Eastern Transport Coalition’s submission points out the weaknesses in the current public transport network and urges the State Government to improve public transport by extending the rail network into the Eastern suburbs,” said Cr Makin.
Chairperson, Cr Mick Van De Vreede said that by expanding the rail network cars would be removed from the roads and greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced.
“The State Government are rightly concerned about the capacity of our roads to handle freight into the future, however the answer is not more roads, the answer is more public transport.
“The million residents of the outer east that our seven member councils represent do not have the access to public transport that other Melbournians do and as a result they often have no option other than private vehicles.
“The large improvement in buses that is planned will make a difference but a bus doubles the key commute time to the CBD. Train is the only answer.
“Our submission points out that the big weakness in the current network is fivefold;
“If implemented with improved facilities for commuters, these five projects would free up a lot of road space on the Eastern and Monash Freeways, space which could be utilised by freight.
“As a first step Rod Eddington should recommend the development of full business cases for each. Proper business cases would allow the State to budget funding and even seek funding from the Federal Government.
“Even the State Government’s own Sustainability Commissioner, Mr Rod Mc Phail, has pointed to the lack of extensions to hard rail as a shortcoming for Melbourne.
“I urge Sir Rod and the State Government to get serious about improving Melbourne’s liveability, now and into the future by extending rail,” Cr Mick Van De Vreede concluded.
Category: Eastern Transport Coalition (ETC),Maroondah,Media Releases
Over the past two days I attended the third Future of Local Government Summit. This summit is designed to ensure best practice within local government in the areas of resource management, sustainability and governance.
Last year’s summit identified eight key principles including:
The goal of this year’s summit is to develop a roadmap to assist local government in delivering upon the eight principles. In this regard a number of case studies were presented which examined community planning, resource sharing and the roles of local government within other countries such as the New Zealand and the UK.
There is an increasing trend amongst councils to share resources to ensure efficiencies of share and consistent information across the sector. Waste services, IT and human resources are also examples of areas that have seen an increase in council collaboration.
With continuous pressures such as cost-shifting it is imperative that councils stand united to ensure efficient and well resourced local government sector.
Category: Maroondah
This evening I attended the launch of the 53rd Ringwood Eisteddfod, the longest running cultural event held within Maroondah. The Ringwood Eisteddfod began through the Ringwood Arts and Craft Society before a separate committee was formed in 1965.
Held at Norwood Hall, the Ringwood Eisteddfod is a program that celebrates the musical talent of Maroondah’s youth through holding competitions in piano, strings, classical guitar, vocals, woodwind and brass and ensemble.
The Grand Final Concert Night for the Ringwood Eisteddfod will be held on Saturday the 14th of July at the Karralyka Centre.
Category: Maroondah,Social Sustainability
Alex Makin is a councillor for the Mullum Ward in the City of Maroondah. Alex has been a councillor since 2005, representing ratepayers, businesses, community groups and residents.
I aim to continue making a difference and welcome any thoughts you may have in regard to life, community and business in Maroondah.
Phone: (03) 9870 8202 or 0408 311 645
Email: alex@alexmakin.com.au
