June 2005




Apologies:  David Michelsen, Tina and Paul Eistis, Sheila Byard

1. Draft Kensington Action Plan -- the next 5 years

Members welcomed Ms Jodie Harris from the City of Melbourne, who gave us the background on the action plan.  This plan draws together in one place all the major actions that the Moonee Valley City Council and the Melbourne City Council are planning for the suburb of Kensington.  The draft covers a wide range of subjects, including planning and development, traffic, parking, services, information and public transport.  The working group has consulted widely, including the Kensington Assocation, the Kensington Management Group, the 2 primary schools, the Flem/Ken News and the Kensington Traders Association and through public forums.  Soon the final draft will be distributed across Kensington to all residents and businesses for comment.  The draft will list specific actions to be taken, who is to take them and by when, and the two Councils have indicated that funds will be available for all proposed actions.
During discussion about building development height limits, the view was put that discretionary limits are useless and that they must be mandatory.
The meeting thanked Ms Harris for her useful presentation.  A full presentation of the Plan will be made at the next Association meeting on 4 July.

2.  Draft Action Plan for South Kensington Railway Station

The proposed short, medium and long term measures contained in the plan were discussed.  Most seemed to gain support.  It was noted that there was no plan to shift the position of the station closer to the Banks area and that a recent letter from the Minister for Transport had declined to increase the number of trains stopping at the station, especially during the evening peak.

3.  Risk management

The meeting thanked Christian Hopgood for being willing to participate in a free workshop on this matter on 20 June and to report back to the Association.

4.  MCC Community Information Support Scheme

Over the past few years, through the generosity of the Melbourne City Council, the Association has received funds that have been used to produce the Association brochure, the web-site, the Walk/Ride map and the Kensington Community Directory.  Proposals for the calendar year 2006 are due on 1 July.  David Ettershank and Tony Dare were delegated to put in a submission.

5.  Women's Peace Garden --proposed replanting -- This item was deferred.

6.  Response of MVCC to our priorities letter

The Mayor of Moonee Valley and member of the Association, Cr Lydia Kauzlaric, was present and drew attention to a particular aspect where the Council would like to get feedback.  If the residents of a particular street are in agreement, the Council will erect signs asking people not to park on that side of the street on a particular day of the week, and the Council will sweep the street once a week.  She asked members to suggest which streets could be candidates for such a scheme.  The Council would then letterbox the street asking for residents' views.  In response to a question, she noted that residents who leave their cars in the way are not fined but receive a notice drawing their attention to the infraction.  

7.  MCC budget

The meeting considered the City of Melbourne proposed 2005-2006 budget.  Concern was expressed that funding to services were either cut or had no growth and funding for capital works in areas such as parks and gardens were negligible.  It was noted that the total of capital works proposed for the MCC section of Kensington is $25,000, half the total allocated for anti-pigeon measures for the Melbourne Town Hall.   At the same time expenditures over the next 3 to 5 years on “big ticket” items such as the Commonwealth Games, the Convention Centre and assimilation of Docklands will draw a huge amount of funds out of Council.  
It was agreed that the Secretary be delegated to write a letter to the Council complaining about the low amount, and to explore the issue with the Coalition of Resident Associations (CORA).

8.  Kensington Estate

It was noted that after being pressed by Association representatives, among others, for many years to ensure that there would be affordable family accommodation incorporated in the building plans, the developer has agreed to incorporate consider construction of between 20 and 25, 3- and 4-bedroom apartments in a forthcoming block of units on the site. This project would be undertaken jointly with Melbourne Affordable Housing.  An application for funding to the Office of Housing will be made in the next few months.

9.  KA Constitution

A member has noted that there are a number of instances where the Association practice diverges from the Constitution, e.g. the Constitution relates to the calendar year whereas the Association plans in terms of the financial year, the Constitution provides for a Vice-Chairman, whereas we do not have one, the Constitution speaks of individual members whereas we have a category of family membership, and so on.
It was agreed that the Executive would take steps to bring our practices and our Constitution into congruence.