Report on May 2015 Council Meeting

Hello again. Our May Council Meeting was not really exciting, but still had its moments!

The minutes of the meeting minus my liner notes are here:

CL Minutes 12 May 15

Below I have chosen the items from the minutes most relevant to Northfield Ward in my opinion. ( Item finished – X  Item continuing – > )

12.2.2 PARKING CONTROL – PARKWAY AVE, WALKLEY HEIGHTS

New parking controls are to go into an area where there has been parking issues in the past including people blocking driveways. As part of writing this blog, I discovered that no one had picked up a typo in the Council report & minutes where we actually approved the wrong street name to have the new parking controls – so this item will need to be redone I believe. >

12.2.10 TEMPORARY ROAD CLOSURE – LIGHTSVIEW

This is to allow the expected large amount of pedestrian traffic etc that will block the roads attached to the sale of the Rendition Homes Cancer Lottery House on June 6th. X

12.2.16 LOCAL AREA TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT PROJECT PRIORITIES

It is fair to say that our Traffic Services Division at Council is struggling with its workload.

Until recently it had 3.5 FTE staff to administer a mind boggling list of duties including local area traffic management schemes, parking controls, technical advice on planning applications, design of traffic management devices, response to Federal & State MPs and Councillors on issues, writing traffic reports for Council meetings, liaison with and upholding DPTI guidelines on traffic matters, traffic counts, community event road closures…the list goes on and on.

Unfortunately we lost the 0.5 staff member in April but help was at hand. I had earlier convinced my fellow elected members that we needed to increase the number of expert staff in this area of Council due to its massive and exponentially increasing workload, and they agreed.

Recruitment is underway for more staff and with Council support also, consultants can be used to assist with our Local Area Transport Management projects where Council looks at fixing local traffic ‘hot spots’.

There are two of these proposed for our ward, originally staff recommended for beginning investigations in Greenacres in 2018/19 and Northfield in 2019/20 but thanks to my idea of funding extra resources, these have been brought forward to Greenacres in 2016/17 and Northfield in 2017/18. >

12.4.1 RE-NAMING OF REGENT GARDENS RESERVE, OAKDEN

In light of the the passing of our long term (27 years) City Manager, Harry Wierda, on Christmas Day last, Council has determined, in consultation with his family, to rename the Regent Gardens Reserve in Oakden to the Harry Wierda Reserve.

Harry was heavily involved in the creation of Oakden, and even though it is fair to say we were never the best of friends, when I needed his support on three local issues – the creation of the aquifer at the lakes in Oakden and standing up to the government in road widths and home designs – he backed me and local residents to the hilt to achieve improvements.

In case you are wondering if it is normal to acknowledge long serving CEOs in this way, the answer is yes, even though the previous incumbent to Harry, Mr Gordon Turner, as per Council policy, still being alive has yet to have this honour bestowed upon him, and the previous one to him, the late Mr Laurie Lewis is commemorated in the LJ Lewis Reserve in Northfield. X

14.2 NOTICE OF MOTION – COUNCIL VERGE TREATMENT OPTIONS
– CR HUBYCZ

Cr. Hubycz moved that Council return a report on the new Munno Para development Council verge treatments as displayed in the attached photos, their cost and maintenance with a comparison to grassed Council verges that we maintain currently. Please provide other low maintenance and visually acceptable verge treatment options in the report.
Cr. McKay seconded CARRIED. [I supported this]. >

16.1 INSTALLATION OF SUBTERRANEAN IRRIGATION AT HAMPSTEAD PRIMARY SCHOOL

Cr Osborn had been approached by the above named school seeking Council in principal support in order to apply for funding to irrigate their reserve. No problems there! X

What do you think of Council’s deliberations at this meeting? 

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