Tag: land use

Eastern Transport Coalition – State Candidates Forum at Maroondah

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The Eastern Transport Coalition is a council initiated advocacy group, covering Melbourne’s seven outer eastern Councils; Greater Dandenong, Knox, Manningham, Maroondah, Monash Whitehorse and the Shire of Yarra Ranges.

As part of its advocacy campaign, the Eastern Transport Coalition is holding a series of candidate forums, throughout each of the member councils. The evening was attended by representatives of each of the three major parties, the Australian Labor Party, the Victorian Liberal Party and the Victorian Greens.

I provided the introduction to tonight’s forum to highlight the current public transport deficiencies within Maroondah. The speech is available within this entry:

Welcome candidates and the community to the Maroondah City Council Eastern Transport Coalition Public Transport Forum.

Maroondah City Council, in the spirit of reconciliation, acknowledges that we are meeting on the land for which the Wurundjeri people have been custodians for many centuries, and on Land which the indigenous Australians have performed age old ceremonies.

We are fortunate tonight to have secured Mr Clay Lucas as our independent moderator. Clay may be well known to some of you as he is part of The Age’s city team having worked The Age and The Sunday Age since 2005 as a city reporter. This role sees Clay reporting on a range of topics across the transport sector, including roads, public transport, planning and development. In 2009 Clay won a Quill for transport reporting with Age investigative reporter Royce Millar.

Before I hand over to Clay to get the evening underway I just want to provide a quick overview of the public transport issues that Maroondah sees as important to the community and help set the context of public transport in the east.

Regional Perspective

The eastern region is an established area experiencing significant economic and population growth.
This growth is mainly occurring through infill and consolidation of existing residential, commercial and employment areas.

The network is struggling to keep up with demand and provide services that the community require to carry out their day to day activities as viable alternatives to the motor vehicle.

The Victorian Transport Plan – Does not deliver for the east

To keep pace with the population and economic growth the current public transport system needs to expand.

The Victorian Transport Plan does not adequately consider or respond to the needs of the East and greater investment is still required, if the eastern suburbs are to continue to be liveable and met the State’s land use and transport plans as outlined in Melbourne @ 5 million.

The high household car ownership in the City of Maroondah is evidence of the public transport systems inability to provide a service that allows our community to undertake their daily activities. The ETC and Maroondah City Council call on the government for the development of a long term regional public transport strategy for the Eastern region.

Ringwood Station Upgrade

Ringwood is identified as one of six Central Activity Districts which will offer CBD type services in suburban locations. In recent MTF public survey, Ringwood Station was voted as Melbourne’s second worse station, after Richmond.

The current Ringwood Station is difficult to access with steep ramps to station platforms that fail the State Government’s Disability Discrimination Act requirements.

The footpath access from each side of the station is not safe, particularly for people in wheel chairs and there is not direct wheel chair access to the car park which is located at the bottom of a steep stairway.
There has been no significant upgrade to the station in more than 50 years and it is desperately needing to be modernised.

For Ringwood Station to be truly accessible to all and permit convenient transferring between transport services, it is imperative that it is clean, comfortable, accessible and safe and secure.

Triplication for the Belgrave/Lilydale line

As Central Melbourne will continue to be a major location for employment, the arts, culture, sport and leisure, central Melbourne should be conveniently accessible by public transport for all Melbournians.
The demand on the Belgrave/Lilydale lines, with approximately 93,000 daily boardings, make these lines one of Melbourne’s most highly patronised rail corridors.

The patronage of both lines is reaching capacity with overcrowding a regular passenger experience. To facilitate more efficient and comfortable commuting for those passengers coming from beyond Ringwood Station, the triplication of the line between Box Hill and Ringwood is required.

Better Buses

Buses are the largest public transport option available to residents within Maroondah and the neighbouring municipalities. Bus patronage is growing, particularly on services with long operation and high frequency of service, i.e. the SmartBus Routes.

The recently conducted Metropolitan Bus Service Reviews was a step in the right direction with identifying inadequate service and generating regional specific solutions. However, very few of the recommendations have been implemented and they have only been small route extensions or minimal frequency and duration improvements.

Bus services in Maroondah remain poor with limited out of peak services and long wait times between services throughout most of the day. Improving bus services in coverage, service frequency and duration will provide real alternatives to the private vehicle and enable the community of Maroondah to have real choice in transport.

Conclusion

The provision of a more equitable, accessible public transport will reduce the detrimental effects of poor access to public transport in the eastern region, such as, social isolation, high car dependency, reduced financial freedom or the inability to access services.

A truly integrated and accessible transport network will also reduce the regions vulnerability to changes in the environment, such as climate change and peak oil.

I thank you for your attendance tonight and look forward to hearing how the candidates respond to your issues.

I’ll now hand you over to Clay to get the evening underway.

Media Release: Six key priorities for Eastern Region Councils

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The Mayors and CEOS of the Eastern Region Councils met the candidates of the major parties last week to discuss the key priorities for the coming State Election.

Maroondah Mayor Alex Makin, who chaired the meeting, said representatives from Yarra Ranges, Banyule, Boroondara, Greater Dandenong, Knox, Manningham, Nillumbik and Whitehorse councils all attended the event.

“The Eastern Region Councils represent more than 1.34 million people which is 25 per cent of Melbourne’s metropolitan population, so by joining forces we have more scope to ensure our concerns are addressed by the State Government,” Cr Makin said.

“Last week’s meeting was an opportunity to ensure the major party candidates in the upcoming election were fully briefed on the ERC priority issues and concerns,” Cr Makin said.

The Eastern Region Councils priorities are: public transport; early years; street lighting; school crossing supervision; libraries and land use planning

“We believe the residents living in the eastern region deserve an improved level of public transport services. The Eastern Region Councils are calling on the State Government to take the lead when it comes to developing a long term regional public transport strategy which addresses the needs of the eastern region,” Cr Makin said.

“Some of the major projects that were discussed were the triplication of the train line between Box Hill and Ringwood and the duplication of single tracks running to Lilydale and Belgrave,” Cr Makin said.

“We also discussed the need for high capacity public transport connecting Rowville and Doncaster to the city, and introducing a review of the public transport pricing arrangements,” Cr Makin said.

“These types of changes would go a long way to addressing the current and future needs of the growing population in the eastern region,” Cr Makin said.

Another major concern of the Eastern Region Councils is the development and implementation of the Early Years Reform.

“While the Eastern Region Councils are supportive of the Early Years Reform we believe it is imperative that the collective impacts of all the components of the reform are considered during the development of the implementation plan,”; Cr Makin said.

“Eastern Region Councils would like to see a consultative and partnership approach during the implementation of the reform and to ensure there is adequate funding and resources allocated to the reform,” Cr Makin said.

Street lighting is the third priority or the Eastern Region Councils and one that has been generating a lot of support via the MAV’s Give Our Streets the Green Light campaign.

“The Eastern Region Councils are calling on the State Government to make a funding commitment towards the capital costs of changing over the street lights to more energy efficient globes,” Cr Makin said.

The third priority is the increasing cost of school crossing supervisors due to cost-shifting from the State Government.

“The cost of implementing the program each year is increasing due to the amount of cost-shifting coming from the State Government,” Cr Makin.

“The funding gap just continues to grow, with councils now subsidising about 75 per cent of the school crossing program,” Cr Makin said.

“To address this issue the Eastern Region Councils are calling on a 50:50 type system to better share the costs between local and state governments,” Cr Makin said.

“The group is calling for a similar agreement to help cover the costs associated with running library services. The current models of State Government funding doesn’t take
into account inflation or population growth, so the funds are only covering about 20 per cent of operating the facilities,” Cr Makin said.

“The councils are seeking a long term funding agreement from the State Government which better recognises the growing costs of operating library services,” Cr Makin said.

“Planning and land use issues are also a high priority, with the Eastern Region Councils seeking a commitment from the State Government to amend sections of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 which would give more weight to local government planning scheme amendments which have reached the exhibition stage,” Cr Makin said.

“At the moment Eastern Region Councils don’t have enough confidence in the process because of the variations in which the planning policy is interpreted at VCAT level. By introducing clearer definitions in the policy, the Eastern Region Councils believe there would be greater certainty and less dissatisfaction among residents and developers,” Cr Makin said.

– ENDS –

Eastern Regional Mayors and CEOs Forum – discussing regional priorities

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The Eastern Regional Mayors and CEOs Forum, includes the Cities of Banyule, Boroondara, Dandenong, Knox, Manningham, Maroondah, Monash, Nilumbik, Whitehorse and the Shire of Yarra Ranges, meets on a regular basis to advance priorities on behalf of the region.

Today’s meeting was hosted at the City of Maroondah and included sessions with MPs and Candidates from the Government, Opposition and The Greens to discuss six priorities facing the region:

  • Public transport;
  • early years;
  • street lighting;
  • school crossing supervision;
  • libraries;
  • and land use planning

The sessions included detailed presentations on each of these issues with the aim of ensuring that each attendee and Party was aware of the concerns held by the Councils in the region. It was encouraging to see strong representation from each of the parties, including Minsters and Shadow Ministers.

One of the key roles of local government is to advocate on behalf of the needs of its residents and communities and as such dialogue between Councils and Members of State Parliament is a necessity. Today’s forum, which was held at the Karralyka Centre, enabled this discussion to take place so that these members would be fully aware of the priorities and concerns of local government in the eastern region.

Media Release: Ringwood CAD Stage 2 Parking Strategy adopted

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Maroondah City Councillors on Monday night adopted the 13 policies outlined in the Ringwood Central Activities District (CAD) Stage 2 Parking Strategy Report.

Councillor Alex Makin said the strategy would be an important tool in addressing many of the potential parking challenges in the Ringwood CAD by providing a range of principles and policies that will guide the direction of both the provision and management of parking in that area.

“The accommodation and management of future parking demand within the Ringwood CAD will present many challenges and will play a fundamental role in both transport and land use planning,” Cr Makin said.

“Council understands that parking cannot be viewed as a stand-alone issue, which is why it has developed the Ringwood CAD Stage 2 Parking Strategy. The strategy includes a range of policies and actions that address the future parking needs of residents and visitors to the Ringwood CAD,” Cr Makin said.

The strategy, which contains 13 strategy policies, has four main aims:

  • Improve management of on-street car parking to achieve optimum use and turnover of car parks.
  • Maximise the availability and awareness of existing parking by better managing demands and encouraging alternative transport modes such as walking, cycling and public transport.
  • Manage the provision of off-street parking for new and existing land uses.
  • Encourage good design principles to minimise the amount of land used by car parking at ground level.

Stage 2 of the Ringwood CAD Parking Strategy Report was completed in September. It follows the completion of the report’s first stage, which provided a snapshot of existing parking within the CAD, established occupancy levels, assessed commuter parking, identified areas to tackle and manage parking as the CAD develops, and provide the platform and direction for the development of a parking strategy.

Ringwood is one of six designated CADs in the State Government’s strategy, Melbourne 2030: Planning for Sustainable Growth. The CAD program aims to create a vibrant and sustainable town centre encompassing retail, commercial, residential, leisure, entertainment and community activities, which will be accessible from surrounding areas by an integrated transport network.

For more information on Ringwood’s transformation into a CAD, visit www.ringwoodgoingplaces.com.au

Statement of Commitment to Reconciliation

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This afternoon I met with a representative of Learning and Reconciliation Maroondah to sign the Statement of Commitment to Reconciliation. The document reinforces my commitment to working towards an inclusive society that provides opportunities for all all people, including indigenous Australians.

Learning and Reconciliation Maroondah is one of two local groups that aim to advance reconciliation with Indigenous Australians. Like Maroondah Movement for Reconciliation, Learning and Reconciliation Maroondah aims to to educate the community about the need for reconciliation and to raise awareness of Indigenous cultures and communities.

A copy of the statement and covering letter is available within this post.

Continue reading “Statement of Commitment to Reconciliation”

Eastern Transport Coalition: November meeting

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Tonight’s Eastern Transport Coalition covered a range of topics as the focus of the group begins to explore key issues that will be relevant for 2008.

The meeting included presentations from the Australian Greens and the Australian Democrats, both of whom are supportive of the need for federal involvement in urban public transport. While Family First, chose not to attend the meeting, I am aware that the Party has announced a policy supporting federal funding for public transport infrastructure.

This is significant, since each of the minor parties represented in Federal Parliament, support the notion of federal involvement in urban public transport. The discussions with the Greens and Democrats were fruitful, with both parties recognising the social, environmental and economic benefits of public transport improvements in the eastern suburbs and suggesting the use of the Senate as a method to raise awareness of the issue within Federal Parliament.

Regardless of the Federal election outcome, announcements such as the $80 million for the grade separation of Springvale Road Nunawading, provide a framework to advocate for partnerships between federal and local governments. This will allow public transport infrastructure to be included within such projects and allow both local and federal governments to hold the State government accountable for much needed public transport improvements.

The Eastern Transport Coalition has also continued its focus on the State Government with a presentation provided in regard to the Transport Legislation Review. The ETC will be authoring a submission that calls on the State Government to prioritise sustainable transport, as well as officially recognise the Government’s own target of increasing public transport modal share to 20% by the year 2020.

The current transport legislation review also draws into question the current lack of integration between VicRoads and the Public Transport Division of the Department of Infrastructure. While legislation may assist in improving outcomes, it will be hampered until physical integration between the Roads Authority (VicRoads) and the Public Transport Division is accomplished. VicRoads, as a statutory authority, enjoys a number of benefits that are not available to the public transport division which sits within the broader Department of Infrastructure.

This is clearly demonstrated in regard to the Maroondah Highway pedestrian crossing between Ringwood Station and Eastland. Despite the fact that the crossing is the most widely used within Maroondah, with over 5000 pedestrians daily, and links the Station with the retail and residential precincts of the Ringwood Transit City, VicRoads has currently been reluctant to improve the crossing.

Physical integration of government departments would follow examples in both Western Australia, with its integrated transport and planning department, and Queensland, which has a Coordinator-General’s department that as a statutory authority provides a whole of government referral authority.

The need for not just legislative integration but departmental integration is clear, with the Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability stating that “A more streamlined approach to land use and transport integration in Victoria would be possible if a single strategic authority were established.”

It is anticipated that both the Legislation Review and the VCEC Inquiry to Melbourne’s Liveability will be a significant focus for the Eastern Transport Coalition in 2008, as we continue to call on the State Government to improve public transport in the eastern suburbs.

Peak Oil, Petrol Prices and Climate Change Conference

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Peak Oil and the impacts of climate change have risen in prominence this week with both the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) and a coalition of community groups led by the Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) organising conferences on these issues.

I attended the Peak Oil, Petrol Prices and Climate Change conference which was organised by the Public Transport Users Association (PTUA), Environment Victoria and the Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS) and held at the DOI Theatrette at Nauru House.

Peak Oil, whereby the supply of oil is unable to meet demand, was first theorised by Marion King Hubbert in 1956. Despite the constant crticisms throughout the reminder of Hubbert’s career, he successfully predicted the peaking of US domestic oil supplies. On a world-wide scale peak oil it is predicted that peak oil will occur somewhere between 2010 and 2020, the exact figure being difficult to determine due to the uncertainty surrounding the actual level of oil reserves within the Middle East.

The conference attracted prominent speakers such as Professor Peter Newman, one of Australia’s leading urban transport academics, Dr. Jago Dodson, who investigated the vulnerability of Australia’s cities in responding to rising petrol prices and Dr. Ian McPhail the Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability, who recently highlighted the State Government’s poor performance in regard to public transport and land use planning.

Areas of vulnerability to petrol prices within Melbourne

Areas of oil vulnerability within Melbourne (darker areas represent a higher vulnerability to rising petrol prices)

Regardless of the actual date of peak oil, it is clear that petrol prices are continuing to rise due to the demand for oil from countries such as India and China. Rising petrol prices place an increased financial burden on car dependent households, such as those located in Melbourne’s outer suburbs. These suburbs are dependent on car travel largely due to State Government neglect in providing fast, frequent and readily available public transport.

While Maroondah Council’s 2007/2008 Budget approved the hiring of a new full-time Transport and Sustainability Officer and the recently adopted Pedestrian Strategy will assist in focusing council on improving and increasing the level of walking within the municipality, we are still lacking any clear leadership from the State Government towards improving public transport.

Eastern Transport Coalition June 2007 meeting

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This evening’s Eastern Transport Coalition (ETC) meeting focused on the seven key focus areas including:

  1. Public transport interchanges;
  2. Bus services and bus priority;
  3. Train extension to Rowville and Doncaster;
  4. Rail improvements along the Ringwood line;
  5. Rail improvements along the Dandenong line, and
  6. Federal Funding of urban public transport infrastructure;

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.

Eastern Transport Coalition May 2007 Meeting

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The Eastern Transport Coalition’s campaign for federal involvement in urban transport infrastructure is continuing with an invitation being extended to MPs and Candidates to discuss these needs. There is a need for the Federal Government to formally respond to the 2004 Sustainable Cities Inquiry, which cited a number of concerns in regard to Australia’s urban centres, including the lack of readily available public transport.

Discussions are also continuing at a State level to ensure a renewed focus on the transport needs of the eastern region. The ETC has recently met with a number of Ministers and senior officials to state the need for action in improving sustainable transport. It is hoped that the Melbourne 2030 review process will finally ensure stronger integration between land use planning and the transport needs for Melbourne.

MAV Melbourne 2030 Councillor Reference Group: Discussing the Melbourne 2030 audit process

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The Melbourne 2030 Councillor Reference provides a forum for councillors to discuss issues in relation to Melbourne 2030 and urban planning. Today’s meeting focused on Melbourne 2030 and the five-year review process with Halvard Dalheim, from the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) discussing the audit process of the strategy.

The audit, which is due to be completed by the end of 2007, will focus on the implementation of Melbourne 2030 and will compare reality with the aspirations of Melbourne 2030. In an encouraging sign, it was mentioned that policy gaps would be examined which should hopefully identify the lack of integration between transport and planning.

While it is often claimed that Melbourne 2030 provides a ‘whole of government approach’ reality has shown this to be untrue. The Department of Treasury and Finance has continually refused to sign off on the goals expressed in Melbourne 2030 and issues such as transport still fail to be viewed in a holistic manner.

The Government’s recently released Transport and Liveability Statement, known as Meeting Our Transport Challenges is a classic example of the ongoing disconnect between transport and planning. While Melbourne 2030 expressly includes the goal of increasing public transport modal share to 20% by 2020, the Government’s long-term transport statement fails to acknowledge this goal or even allow benchmarking against it.

Key reference groups for Melbourne 2030, including advisory groups hand picked by the State Government, have cited the poor integration between transport and land use planning as a key barrier to ensuring the holistic implementation of this framework for urban planning.

Melbourne 2030 will continue to flounder unless the State Government coordinates land use and planning and provides a fully funded implementation plan that extends much needed infrastructure to public transport poor suburbs. Unfortunately the recent move to split the Transport Portfolio into separate road and public transport ministerial positions provides little confidence that such integration will occur.

Through the Transport and Liveability Statement the State Government committed itself to creating the position of Coordinator General for Infrastructure “to improve whole of government coordination of transport and land use planning and policy.” (Source: Meeting Our Transport Challenges, 2006).

Unfortunately the Coordinator General has no reporting channels within the DSE (Planning) organisational chart and still needs to wade through the management structure of the DOI.

By contrast VicRoads maintains its unimpeded direct access to the Minister, the newly designated Roads and Ports Minister, Tim Pallas.

Lynne Kosky, as Minister for Public Transport is still new within the portfolio. It is yet to be seen whether she will address the shortcoming in Melbourne’s public transport planning and provision. It is also yet to be seen whether Justin Madden, the new Minister for Public Transport will rectify the lack of integration between transport and land use planning through the audit of Melbourne 2030.

The future of Melbourne depends on the actions of these two Ministers. Another seven years of rhetoric and inaction cannot be tolerated.