1. Will you advocate for the retention of the VicRoads reservation running along the Merri and Edgars Creeks as an area of public open space?
2. a) Will you guarantee the ongoing maintenance and operation of the Coburg Outdoor Pool on Murray Road to ensure it stays open?
    b) Will you support the extension of the opening hours of the Coburg Outdoor Pool, in particular an earlier opening than 11:00am?
3. Will you commit to maintaining and preserving the ‘bushland’ character of the Edgars Creek reserve as an informal recreational asset?
4. Will you commit to the maintenance and enhancement of the Newlands Sporting Precinct? This includes Badminton/Table Tennis (Ray Kirby), Basketball, Athletics Track (Harold Stevens), Football Oval and Golf-Driving Range.
5. Will you as a councillor personally consult with our community regarding all stages of the former Kodak site re-development?

See the attached NCA flyer [PDF] for the candidate responses.

1. Ratify the resolution passed by the Moreland City Council at it’s meeting on February 14th 2008 that the Merri and Edgars Creek Parkland in North Coburg:

• Should remain in public ownership and be used for open space,
• Should be gifted to Council,
• Moreland City Council declare in clear and unambiguous terms that its policy position is for the Edgars Creek Reserve (and associated parcels) to remain in public ownership as open space for the enjoyment of the people of Moreland.

2. Promise that I will vote that all the land owned by Vic Roads remains parkland.

3. Actively lobby the state government to gift the land to the Moreland City Council for use as parkland for passive uses.

The downloadable PDF attached to this post identifies those candidates who have pledged their support.  Please consider the future of community open space when you vote this weekend.  Make sure the councillors you elect have the best interests of the local area at heart!

Vote 1 Parkland [PDF]

Mr Carli and Ms Campbell told the meeting they are actively campaigning within the Brumby Government to bring about the transfer of the land to the City of Moreland. Ms Hartland will be addressing a series of questions to the Government this week to ascertain why the transfer has remained unresolved since 2006.  MECPG chairperson Greg Carden also addressed the meeting, speaking to concerns of residents.

“Residential development in this flood-prone parkland will be an environmental disaster. Development of the land will also drastically reduce Coburg’s public open space at a time when thousands of new residents are moving in to the Kodak and Pentridge developments. This park should be the centrepiece of a revitalised Coburg” said Mr Carden. 

MECPG will continue to campaign for the retention of the single largest piece of public open space in Moreland. “The fact 250 people turned out on a Sunday morning really demonstrates how much the people of Coburg value this space. We will continue to fight until the state government ensures this urban jewel is protected for this and future generations of Coburg residents” said Mr Carden. 

To highlight the crisis facing the parkland, we’ve invited local and state politicians to attend an on-site information session on Sunday 7th September, 9:30am - 10:30am.  We’ll meet at the bridge near the basketball stadium on Outlook Rd, where the Merri and Edgars creeks join.

Come and join us to…

• See this wonderful parkland with your own eyes to fully appreciate how and why the local community has invested significant time to improve the quality of this public open space.
• Hear more about the working relationships the community (through the Friends of Edgars Creek) has built with relevant stakeholders, such as Greening Australia, Melbourne Water and the City of Moreland, to manage and improve this community asset.
• Experience the natural beauty of this parkland and discover how the loss of this community asset will contradict Melbourne 2030 Policy 5.7 –’to ensure major open space corridors are protected and enhanced’.

Remember - there’s no reason people should have to pay for a park twice!

HERE is a challenge.The next time it tickles your fancy to scale the heights of the Rialto or Eureka towers, look towards the northern suburbs of Melbourne from the observation deck and try to spot the parkland. There’s Princes Park and Royal Park, although yet another large chunk of the latter is under threat from the Eddington report’s road tunnel. Much further north, on a clear day, you might spy a sliver of greenery, parkland on either side of Coburg Lake. Just to the east of that, running north alongside Edgars Creek from its confluence with Merri Creek, is a 6.5-hectare tract of fully functional parkland. Owned by VicRoads, it is under threat of being sold off to developers unless Moreland City Council can find $10 million to buy it.Research conducted by Professor David Crawford, research fellow at Deakin University (as reported in The Age, 4/7), has shown that “rich suburbs have better-equipped parks”. The northern suburbs have a greater dilemma though - hanging on to the precious little parkland they already have.Moreland City Council has declared its preference to retain the four parcels that constitute the Merri and Edgars Creek parkland as public open space, but have baulked at the price tag. After all, it is a local government election year and ratepayers don’t always appreciate the difficulty associated with getting more by paying less. There is also talk of a tawdry deal being struck - though those wishing to put a positive spin on it would call it a “compromise” - to sell off a choice cut of the land to preserve the rest.

Crawford explains that councils such as Moreland have got fewer resources and “are trying to spread them further to deal with more issues” which, in this instance, provokes the important question: why should they have to? Why can’t the land be gifted to the council, just as the Point Nepean land was gifted to the state of Victoria by the Federal Government?

The Melbourne 2030 plan clearly supports the position of the Merri and Edgars Creek Parkland Group, whose raison d’etre is to save this parkland.

The recent Audit Expert Group Report on Melbourne 2030 notes that “the provision of neighbourhood amenities, including parks, open space, facilities and services, is an essential component of maintaining neighbourhood liveability”. Further, it recommends “improving open space provision and services in line with population increases”.

It correctly observes: “Reduction of tree canopy and loss of open space are two of the most easily felt and resented potential (but not inevitable) outcomes of urban consolidation.” It argues that “allocation of surplus government land for open space” is an area that should be taken into consideration.

There are many other cases of public open space under threat. However, no less than any of them, the Merri and Edgars Creek parkland issue should be a lay-down misere. The park is home to a diverse range of flora and fauna. It is utilised by a vast cross-section of people, locals and from far-flung suburbs.

The land is subject to inundation, a status not likely to improve as the frequency of flash floods, related to global warming, increases. Residential developments on the old Pentridge and Kodak sites are contributing to significant population growth in the area and the State Government is yet to explain how the citizens of Moreland would be compensated for any loss of open space. Further, Moreland City Council, and hence the ratepayers, have maintained the parkland for decades now and justifiably believe they have already paid for it.

If Pascoe Vale were a marginal electorate, I suspect this issue would have been resolved before the last state election. Planning Minister Justin Madden and Minister for Roads Tim Pallas have a clear choice here: another blatant grab for cash, or a principled, commonsense decision in keeping with the Melbourne 2030 plan and to the benefit of thousands of Melburnians.

If our governments cannot even follow their own plans to protect our valuable public open space, what hope do we have of meeting greater challenges such as warding off the extreme effects of global warming?

Peter Hodge is a teacher and writer.

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This story was found at:
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/green-or-greed-the-battle-for-our-suburban-parklands-20080810-3szr.html?page=-1