government commitment Archives

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) will be signed between City of Melbourne’s Lord Mayor, Robert Doyle, and Mayors from the State Government’s six designated Central Activities Districts (CADs) – Frankston, Maroondah, Greater Dandenong, Hume, Maribyrnong and Whitehorse – on Monday 22 November at 9.30am in the Frankston City Council Chambers to officially cement their unanimous commitment to seek State Government support and funding to create the most productive, liveable and sustainable city centres.

The MOU acknowledges that mutual benefit can be derived by these municipalities through measures of mutual support, collaboration and by providing a united voice and joint approach to lobbying.

Frankston City Council Mayor, Cr Christine Richards said these six metropolitan hubs have been selected to attract people, investment and jobs and it is pivotal they remain supported to achieve the objectives of the State Government’s Melbourne 2030 and Melbourne @ 5 million strategies.

“This is a historical political event – the joining of Mayors to achieve a mutually beneficial outcome. The CAD municipalities are ready, willing and able to face the challenges ahead together to make our CADs thriving metropolises. However, we cannot do so without a whole-of-government commitment to CAD planning,” Cr Richards said.

Maroondah City Council Mayor, Cr Alex Makin, said despite the CADs individual differences, synergies do exist between the municipal city centres.

“This alliance means we can work co-operatively to provide a united voice with more weight that will give greater strength to plans and solutions to state-wide issues. We need a State Government supported implementation plan to ensure our city centres can achieve their designated potential,” said Cr Makin.

The Mayors’ will further discuss how to best achieve the objectives set out in the State Government’s Planning Policy Framework. The Mayors’ are unanimous that at a minimum CADs must:

have a functioning transit interchange – to enable comfortable, quick and efficient journeys by buses and trains throughout each municipality – in some CADs substantial infrastructure funding is still required to make this vision a reality
create more local jobs – CADs need to expand their base of employers to create a greater range and number of local jobs available to local residents
create more affordable housing.

“This Memorandum of Understanding between the Central Activities District Mayors and the Mayor of the City of Melbourne will allow for increased co-operation between our municipalities and allow us to jointly advocate for our key priorities,” Cr Makin said.

“Our main priority at a state level is to secure a long term funding commitment for the CADs. With Melbourne quickly becoming a city of many cities, we want to ensure certainty for the respective CADs, as well as bolstering the opportunity for all levels of governments to provide more services across greater metropolitan Melbourne”, Cr. Makin concluded.

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Radio Eastern FM is a community radio station that broadcasts on 98.1 FM from studios at Wyreena Community Arts Centre. The radio station has a variety of programs, including interviews with Councillors on the first Friday of each month.

This month I was interviewed on Radio Eastern FM to discuss Council’s role in advocating on behalf of the community and to provide further details on Council’s campaign calling on all political parties to commit to the upgrade and redevelopment of Ringwood Station.

The State Election in November provides the ideal opportunity to secure a commitment towards Ringwood Station, so that it becomes an accessible, safe and integrated transit interchange. While the State Government has committed $39 million to redevelop the bus interchange and station forecourt, further funding is required to improve the station itself, including ramps that fail disability compliance standards.

The redevelopment of Ringwood Station is essential to transforming it into a vibrant, sustainable and accessible urban centre. Ringwood will only be successful as a Central Activities District if it is provided with public transport infrastructure and services that are accessible, safe and easy to utilise. The current station does not meet this criteria and needs a State Government commitment to secure its redevelopment and upgrade.

Council is working in partnership with the community to secure the upgrade of Ringwood Station. A petition is available at Council Service Centres, as well as online at www.maroondah.vic.gov.au so that community members can demonstrate their support for the redevelopment of Ringwood Station.

In addition, I will be writing to community groups to outline how they can get involved in the campaign and assist in securing a commitment from all political parties towards the vital redevelopment of Ringwood Station.

Council will be continuing this campaign in the lead-up to the State Election and will be holding an official launch in mid October. Regular updates will be provided on the progress of this Campaign and I look forward to working with the community to advocate for a safe, accessible and integrated Ringwood Transit Interchange.