The FCA Committee trusts you are staying safe and well in these rather difficult times.

Update regarding the renovation of the Flinders Hall and installation of public toilets in the Cook Street park:

• The latest information from Council is that both of these project concept plans have been developed based on the key stakeholder feedback. The plans are currently being reviewed by senior management and will be circulated in the next couple of weeks. As a matter of interest, the stage of the community hall will be raised.
• The Shire officers’ immediate priority has been providing a submission in response to the State Government’s announcement of a bonus round of the Growing Suburbs Fund. The Growing Suburbs Fund supports investment in critical local infrastructure in Melbourne’s diverse and fast-growing interface councils. A new $25 million six-month extension to the Fund was announced by the Victorian Government on 3 June 2020. Mornington Peninsula is one of the ten eligible interface councils.
• On Wednesday evening 3 June the Council had a Section 223 meeting, where community members can apply to be heard regarding the Council budget. On Cr Gill’s advice I applied to participate, urging that funds continue be allocated for the hall. It was a Zoom meeting and run very efficiently. I was the 11th person to speak which was a relief. We were strictly limited to 3 minutes each and I was not asked any questions.

Those of you with your ear to the ground will know that the Flinders Post Office is to have a new Postmaster and a new building. Australia Post has provisionally approved the transfer of the Flinders Post Office Licence to the Flinders General Store. Our present Postmaster, John Derham, is retiring after 32 years in the role. John will remain the Licensee and continue to run the Post Office from the present location until new facilities are ready across the road for the FGS to take over. Subject to Council approval, a new post office facility will be built in the area between the Flinders General Store and the R T Edgar Estate Agency.

David Gill, our Red Hill Ward Councillor, goes to some trouble to keep local community groups informed about projects or undertakings by Council and State government which may be of interest to us all. The rest of this FCA Newsletter summarises recent developments of this kind which I hope will be of interest.

Kind regards

Jo Monie

President, FCA

NAMING OF THE NEW $50M AQUATIC CENTRE

Mornington Peninsula Shire Council (MPSC) is currently conducting a public consultation process to decide on the name of the new $50 million aquatic centre which is due to be completed soon.

The process to find a name had been exhaustive over many months with a great deal of public consultation and an expert naming panel. This was set up to consider all aspects including financial return, branding, marketing and consultation with our community and with Place Names Victoria.  There were 442 community submissions and a strong theme for an iconic name depicting Aboriginal culture emerged. Of the many suggestions, three Aboriginal local language words became shortlisted:

Barbawar Aquatic Centre (Stingray, commonly seen off local beaches)

Gunawarra Aquatic Centre (Black swan, common locally)

Yawa Aquatic Centre (to swim).

Two other names names have made the final shortlist:

Rosebud Aquatic Centre

Tides Aquatic Centre

The voting ‘competition’ form for a name for the new aquatic centre is now on the council website. David Gill points out that “the last minute change by Council is now also an opportunity to firmly state that we are willing and proud to have an Aboriginal Language name for a major municipal community building”.

Vote for the name of your choice:

https://www.mornpen.vic.gov.au/About-Us/Have-your-say/Have-Your-Say-Vote-for-your-favourite-Aquatic-Centre-name

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, LAND, WATER AND PLANNING (DELWP) TAKEOVER OF WESTERN PORT FORESHORES

(Information provided by DELWP.)

DELWP is undertaking a four-year project, Future Foreshores, to explore options to simplify management of coastal Crown Land Reserves (CLRs). Historically, many coastal reserves have been managed by volunteer committees of management (CoM), local government and state government agencies such as Parks Victoria.

DELWP recognises that the management of coastal CLRs is increasingly difficult due to complex environmental issues such as climate change as well as population growth, ageing infrastructure and changing community attitudes. We want to improve the way coastal CLRs are managed and create long-term planning and financial stability. DELWP is proposing new management arrangements to establish well-resourced land managers that are efficient and sustainable and have the expertise to respond to future challenges.

Future Foreshores is a pilot project, initially looking at three coastal regions:

1. Western Port in Mornington Peninsula Shire
2. Port Phillip in Mornington Peninsula Shire
3. Western Port in City of Casey.

In September 2019, DELWP commissioned Grosvenor Performance Group to review the activities of the CoMs within the three pilot regions. The resulting Current State Analysis presents the region’s accountabilities and responsibilities, alongside their capacity, skills and resourcing.

The management and financial model options have been prepared by Grosvenor and are presented in the Draft Options Paper. DELWP is now inviting feedback on the draft management options for each of the regions. Capire Consulting Group have been appointed by DELWP to lead the engagement.

To find out more, contact the project team by phone or email: 61 3 902 106 72; westernportmornington@capire.com.au

MPS COMMUNITY CLIMATE CHANGE NEWSLETTER

The issue circulated covers:

What are we doing to tackle climate change?

Learnings from the 2015 United National Climate Change Conference

Climate change mitigation – actions to reduce or prevent greenhouse gas emissions:

• Projects to achieve carbon neutrality
• Waste management
• Sustainable transport

Climate change resilience – community engagement

For more information:

Email: climateemergency@mornpen.vic.gov.au
Website: mornpen.vic.gov.au/climatechange

GREEN WEDGE REVIEW UPDATE 19 MAY 2020

(excerpt from an email from Stephen Chapple ACEcD, Regional Director, Port Phillip Region, Forest, Fire and Regions, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning)

“The Minister for Planning has approved DELWP Planning’s consultation paper titled Planning for Melbourne’s Green Wedges and Agricultural Land for consultation. This paper has approximately 46 options to the improve the planning system to protect green wedges and support agriculture and other complimentary uses.

Due to impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, DELWP Planning have split the consultation into two stages. The first stage is consultation with local government and key government stakeholders (Tourism Vic, DJPR, EPA, Melbourne Water) for 10 weeks.  After the first stage, the second stage of consultation will be for industry and general public for another 10 weeks.”

[Note: timing of this second stage of consultation is not yet known.]

COMMUNITY CLEANING BLITZ

(email from John Baker, Shire CEO)

As from 18 May, the Shire is pleased to be working with State Government and the MAV to support the roll out of the ‘Visual Street Cleansing Blitz.’ This was a quick turnaround initiative of the State Government to support our community in feeling safe and secure in public and provide some additional support to Council and Business as restrictions are eased.

The teams are working 7 days a week and during daylight hours.

The Cleansing teams are complementing the existing work that the Shire is already doing and will also provide a bridging service whilst we bring on board the additional cleaning crews engaged through the Working for Victoria agreement with State Government.  The State Government have engaged CityWide in our region to deliver this service.

The 5 teams (of 10 people) on the Mornington Peninsula will be operating Shire wide with a focus on high profile and commercial precincts and well used public space.  This is not isolated to Council property, but Body Corporates and other land holder like Parks Victoria land.

The Teams are using an EPA approved sanitiser to clean public touch points like pedestrian crossings, bike racks, bins and street furniture.  They will not be working indoors or delivering other services like graffiti removal or litter collection.

The Shire is working with CityWide to ensure it delivers the best outcome to our community.  It’s a great opportunity to enhance our existing service at no cost to the ratepayers at this challenging time.  All costs associated with this service over the next four weeks will be funded by the State Government.