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Boroondara City Council

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New Councillor for Cotham Ward

Jul 07 Long-time Boroondara resident Phil Meggs is the newly elected Councillor for the City of Boroondara’s Cotham Ward. The election result was announced on Saturday 21 July.

Please see the Boroondara website for more information.

Cotham Ward By-Election

Jul 07 Bicycle Victoria has contacted each candidate in the City of Boroondara's Cotham Ward by-election and asked them to complete a survey related to riding in Boroondara.

8 candidates completed the survey. Please see the results below.

Name	Will you vote to approve the planning permit for the construction of the Darebin Bridge which will connect the Darebin Creek Trail with the Main Yarra Trail?	Do you support the Council's current level of funding ($700,000+) for bicycle facilities in Boroondara?
Charles Kos	Yes.	Yes.
David Bloom	Yes	Yes.
Sue Reddish	Yes.	Yes.
Richard Anderson	Yes.	Yes.
Ray Walford	Yes.	Yes.
Emma Henley	Yes.	Yes.
Leon Zembekis	Yes.	No. (Believes there should be an increase on this amount)
Jaqueline Hang	Yes.	Yes.
Jason Goldsmith	No response.	No response.
Dennis Whelan	No response.	No response.
Lauren Rielly	No response.	No response.
Kate Beaumont	No response.	No response.
Katherine Walsh	No response.	No response.
Cindee Smith	No response.	No response.
Phil Meggs	No response.	No response.
Tony Michael	No response.	No response.

Jun 07 The City of Boroondara's Cotham Ward Councillor Lachlan Williams gave Council notice of his intention to resign as a Councillor at a Council meeting on 16 April.

A by-election will be held for the Cotham Ward on 21 July 2007.

The Darebin Bridge is reaching a critical stage and is likely to be an issue in the Cotham Ward by-election. If you would like to let the councillors know how important the Darebin Bridge is to you then please send them an email. The contact details of each councillor are below.

David Bloom Business Hours: 03 9819 5237 Mobile: 0408 360 043	Katherine Walsh katherine-walsh@hotmail.com
Jason Goldsmith kkostagi@bigpond.net.au	Leon Zembekis leonzem@hotmail.com
Dennis Whelan dennis@vicnet.net.au	Cindee Smith msmith@connexus.net.au
Charles Kos crkos2@student.monash.edu	Richard Anderson richanderson@dodo.com.au
Lauren Rielly lauren@laurenrielly.com	Sue Reddish suereddish@iprimus.com.au
Ray Walford raywalford@aanet.com.au	Emma Henley emmah1982@hotmail.com
Jacqueline Hang mail@jacquelinehang.com	Phil Meggs phil.meggs.cotham@gmail.com
Kate Beaumont s3141610@student.rmit.edu.au	Tony Michael cotham@gogadget.name

New lanes on Wellington St, Kew

May 07 Boroondara City Council are currently putting the finishing touches to new bike lanes along Wellington St, Kew. This road acts as a good alternative to the Kew Junction and goes past the front door of Trinity Grammar. There
is still a section missing just east of Charles St, however the transport team at Council are working to complete this gap.

Developer sees the light and improves bike parking

Dec 06 Good news; the developer of the Homemaker Centre at 742 Toorak Rd, Hawthorn East has decided to provide bike parking that will meet the Boroondara planning provisions and will even locate some parking near the Gardiners Creek Trail as suggested by Bicycle Victoria.

The revised proposal, which also has a new cafe located near the Trail, was passed by council on the 11th Dec 2006. See below for the history of this planning application.

Developer does not want adequate bike parking

Oct 06 Bicycle Victoria recently attended a stakeholder meeting to review an application for a Homemaker Centre at 742 Toorak Rd, Hawthorn East. The site abutts the Gardiners Creek Trail. Whilst members of BoroondaraBUG were relieved to discover that adequate provision has been incorporated for a realigned path along the south boundary of the property, Bicycle Victoria has strongly voiced our opposition to the applicant's desire not to provide adequate parking for the 2,400m site which will have high levels of staff and visitor numbers attending 7 days a week.

The application seeks exemption from Clause 52.34 of the Boroondara Planning Scheme
and proposes a greatly reduced number of bicycle parking spaces. We strongly urge council not to issue the permit that would enable a reduced bicycle parking requirement.

Bicycle Victoria does not agree with the assertion in the application that ‘the large floor area / low employee density’ warrants a reduction in employee bike parking spaces.

Clause 52.34 suggests that the relevance of bike parking facilities should consider ‘users of the land and their opportunities for bicycle travel’. Therefore it is incorrect to consider floor area / employee density in isolation. If a ‘large floor area / low employee density’ can be proven it does not justify a reduction in bike parking facilities. In fact it is more likely that this would be outweighed by the relatively high number of staff that will be able to access the Homemaker Centre by bicycle (counts have shown over 2,000 people per day using the Gardiners Creek Trail near the site).

Given that few goods bought at such establishments are actually driven away by customers on the day, but delivered afterwards, it would seem that the needs of people arriving by bike or foot along the Gardiners Creek Trail should warrant higher significance.

After hearing from a representative of the applicant, Leighton Properties, said that they had never been seriously challenged over recent years due to their ability to work through issues with stakeholders on other similar projects. We outlined our strong opposition to their request for not providing adequate parking provisions to which the response was - "See you in VCAT!"

Bicycle Victoria formal opposition to Homemaker Centre application (pdf 100KB)

Keep up to date on this issue by clicking on 'Email me updates' (above) so we can tell you when and how to show your support

Boroondara Bicycle Strategy

July 06 Boroondara Council have this year budgeted to review their Bicycle Strategy to help further improve cycling in their municipality. Bicycle Victoria looks forward to working with the council on this initiative. Register (on right) for updates so when we find out the process is beginning we can let you know automatically.

Kilby Road – How important is 30 seconds to you?

Bicycle Victoria is in favour of the retention of the 50km/hr speed limit on Kilby Road in Kew.

We believe that by reducing speeds on local roads such as Kilby Road, cyclists will feel more comfortable riding on the road in bicycle lanes and consequently more riders will be encouraged to use this road in the future.

Lower speed limits make the road environment safer for everyone, in particular vulnerable road users like pedestrians. Research shows that small reductions in vehicle speeds dramatically increase the chance of a pedestrian surviving a crash. A pedestrian who is struck by a car travelling at 60 km/h has little chance of survival. At 50 km/h the chance of survival is 60 per cent. (Source: http://www.arrivealive.vic.gov.au/c_speedAS.html)

Sure, driving at 50km/hr and not 60km/hr along the 2.5km of Kilby Road will add approximately 30 seconds to your journey. It depends on how important that 30 seconds really is to you, your fellow road users and your community.

Chandler Hwy

Aug 05 Funding has been announced for bike lanes in the northbound direction from the Yarra River to Heidelberg Rd. Works are expected to start in mid 2006.

In June 2005 new bike lanes were marked on the Chandler Hwy between Princes St, Kew and the bridge over the Yarra River.

They significantly improve the visibility and safety of cyclists using this section of road, particularly at the slip lanes where cars are entering and exiting the Eastern Freeway.

Kew residential services site: Public consultation

July 05 Boroondara Council has recently finished receiving submissions for their response to the State Government’s proposed development plan for the Kew Residential Services Site.

Bicycle Victoria made a submission to Boroondara recommending the following:

That the shared path built along these routes be of sufficient width to allow pedestrians / cyclists to co-exist (3m path constructed from saw cut concrete would achieve this, however the path should be no narrower than 2.5m);
Princess Street is on the Principal Bicycle Network (lanes not constructed as yet), so there should be good links to the future facility (ie ramps etc);
Quality, legible links to the Main Yarra Trail with directional signage encouraging people to use this link;
Yarra Blvd is also a popular training / commuter and recreational route. A good link to this is also desirable.
That speeds be limited to 40km/h maximum and not 50km/h to encourage a lower speed environment.
That end of trip facilities be considered with bike parking an essential part of the residential component and also facilities installed in public open space areas.

Submissions regarding the Kew Residential Services site closed on 01 July 2005.

Gardiners Creek Trail – Dunlop St signals switched on

Jun 05 The Dunlop Street pedestrian signals west of Francis Crescent for the Gardiners Creek shared path in Ashburton (near Darling Park) were switched on on Monday afternoon 16 May 2005.

This will enable cyclists to safely cross this road at grade on their journey along the Gardiners Creek shared path.

Send a thank you to

Boroondara City Council.

Bulleen Rd

May 05 Bulleen Road and Leonis Ave, North Balwyn. A simple letter from one of our members to Boroondara City Council will see line markings and a 'cyclists ahead' sign installed across Leonis Ave indicating to road users that they must stop before entering Bullen Road.

2004 Council Elections

Nov 04. The Boroondara City Council elections has seen a majority of councillors elected who support vital cycling projects. With such a pro-cycling council there is a real promise that further progress will be made to making Boroondara more cycle friendly. Congratulations to

The responses of elected councillors to the survey questions are given below. Candidates were asked if they supported:

Q1. Completion of the Principal Bicycle Network of on road bike lanes in Boroondara
Q2. Linking of the Darebin Creek Trail and the Main Yarra Trail via Willsmere Chandler Park

Re-elected councillor are marked with an asterisk (*)

Boroondara Bicycle User Group who conducted the interviews and posted the results on their website.

Bellevue Ward	Q1. On-road PBN	Q2. Yarra Darebin Trail link	Comments
TOBIN, Luke	No	Yes	Wants on- road lanes diverted to backstreets
Cotham Ward
WILLIAMS, Lachlan	No response yet	No response yet
Gardiner Ward
* ROSS, Coral	?	?	Not interviewed
Glenferrie Ward
* BUTLER, Meredith	Yes	Yes	Voted for PBN
Junction Ward
* WEGMAN, Jack	Yes, voted to support	Not answered clearly	General support
Lynden Ward
* KREUTZ, Heinz	Yes	Yes	Has actively approached MPs for better connectivity. Commutes by bike
Maling Ward
MENTING, Dick	Yes	General support	Involved in Community Banks and would explore funding to bike-related issues
Maranoa Ward
TRAGAS, Nicholas	Yes	Yes
Solway Ward
HALIKIAS-BYRNES, Mary	Yes	unclear answer
Studley Ward
HEALEY, Phillip	Yes	"While I will support both items 1 & 2 I think that item 2 is too many years overdue and needs to be expedited."

Take action

Would you like to see a section of road improved to make cycling safer in your neighbourhood? Then check out our Get it fixed web page for tips on how to take action.