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'Select few' sink town plan

13/12/2022

10 Comments

 
Picture
Going, going, gone … Concept drawing of McBride Ave, Wonthaggi Activity Centre Plan, April 2021. The plans have been drastically altered after an exclusive consultation process with traders.
By Frank Coldebella

THE last most of us heard about the Wonthaggi Activity Centre project was in April 2021 when the council unanimously backed the Wonthaggi Activity Centre Plan.
 
This plan was the result of six years of discussion and consultation, and included extensive streetscape works to slow traffic and improve the safety of pedestrians and cyclists.
Most of those who took part in the consultation were not so much concerned with the wind and truck tunnel of the VicRoads-controlled Graham Street but the council-controlled McBride Avenue area, particularly between Murray Street and Graham Street.

​Under the approved plan, some parking places were to be removed and the footpath widened to create a dining and entertainment precinct and a mid-block pedestrian crossing. It would be a place to linger, listen to music perhaps, meet your friends, have a meal. A touch of a European city in Wonthaggi.
Picture
McBride Ave, concept plan, 2021
During the consultation period, some McBride Avenue traders expressed the fear that they would lose business when a limited number of parking spots were removed to widen the footpath. There is plenty of evidence, however, that encouraging pedestrians to linger in welcoming spaces actually leads to more unplanned shopping.

When the motion to adopt the plan was passed, then Bass Coast Mayor Brett Tessari emphasised the importance of these documents in planning for the future of Wonthaggi. The following month the State Government announced a grant of $2 million towards implementing the plan.  Most of us turned our attention elsewhere.

It was only last month that I learnt the motion to adopt the plan included an amendment moved by our local councillor, Cr Les Larke, that further consultation on the plan would occur exclusively with the Wonthaggi Business and Tourism Association (WBTA).
The latest chapter in the long-running saga was an invitation-only meeting held at the old Wonthaggi Post Office on November 16. Apart from those “select few” (the term used by the spokesperson for consultants Hansen Partnership), none of the local residents, ratepayers or organisations who participated in the long consultation process over many years was invited to this meeting.
At this meeting, the consultants produced a completely new plan for McBride Avenue.  The plan hasn’t been publicly released yet but by chance I’ve seen a copy and I can tell you it’s nothing like the plan we all thought was approved back in April 2021. 
​
The new plan is an insult to modern urban planning and the potential of McBride Avenue.​​

​It’s also an insult to all the volunteers who attended countless meetings where everyone, including traders, was welcome to express their ideas and thoughts. 

The Wonthaggi Business and Tourism Association should not have a secret veto over use of public space.
​
Wonthaggi set for makeover
April 23, 2021 - The Wonthaggi CBD will have “new life breathed into it”, according to councillors who unanimously backed the Wonthaggi Activity Centre Plan at Wednesday’s council meeting.
Picture
The Heart of our Town
​April 4, 2021 - The liquor and gambling industry should not be telling us how to use our public space, writes Frank Coldebella

“We’re delighted with feedback from the Wonthaggi Community after meeting with key stakeholders for the Wonthaggi Activity Centre Streetscape Masterplan.”
Hansen Partnership, November 2022 
​A ratepayer who queried the council about the new plans after this secret meeting was advised “These concepts are still confidential and we therefore ask that they are not shared publicly.”

​​I have been unable to get answers to the following questions:
  • When and why did the council reverse its motion of April 2021?
  • What was revealed at the second consultation, conducted exclusively with the traders, that justified the dumping of a strategy that came out of an inclusive, transparent and successful consultation process?  
  • Why was it necessary to employ new consultants?
  • What was the new brief given to Hansen Partnership and why was it not released publicly?  
  • Who has been advised of the substantially amended new proposal?
  • Why was the announcement restricted to a “select few” given that this had been a very openly discussed issue for several years?
  • Who selected the “few” to attend the announcement?
  • Why give exclusive access to private stakeholders? Why can’t any resident or ratepayer comment on any or all of the plans produced by consultants over the years?
  • Have private beliefs based on no evidence over-ridden a thorough, open urban planning process? 

​Social trust in government is essential for democracy to work. Our elected representatives should remember trust is eroded every time decisions are made in secret and covertly announced. Secrecy leads to speculation that the game is stacked and the big end of town always wins. If you’re not being listened to, why bother taking part? 

Wonthaggi’s proud history of unity and achievement was based on democratic discussion and decision making.  We will need to mine our shire’s collective knowledge and skills to solve the interconnected problems that lie ahead.

Bass Coast Shire Council responded:
"​The Wonthaggi Activity Centre Plan was adopted by Council in April in 2021 and had a number of recommendations.  
 
"One recommendation of the Activity Centre Plan was a streetscape master plan for Wonthaggi, which is this piece of work.  The Draft Wonthaggi Streetscape Master Plan is a more detailed design of the Wonthaggi town centre than the high level concept conveyed in the Activity Centre Plan.
 
"Traders who may be impacted by construction of the master plan have been consulted with in the early stages of consultation.  Broader community consultation will be conducted in 2023."
10 Comments
Peter Mckenzie
16/12/2022 05:34:58 pm

I'm appalled that the many people and meetings which I, along with so many others, participated in and contributed to, can be overturned by an organization which when you look at their web site lists 7 members.
Our objectives were to reinvigorate and improve the city center and now it's all gone for a few parking spaces.
Terrible abuse of community engagement, who will ever contribute again, even when the Shire pretends to seek community input, when we can see the hundreds of hours of local effort wasted by a handful of businesses.
I won't waste my time again.

Reply
Geoff Ellis
16/12/2022 11:04:26 pm

Talk about 'talk the talk' rather than 'walk the walk'! Just trial it for a month and see what happens. Business might boom.

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Georgina Day
17/12/2022 07:51:17 am

Perhaps “the select few” are simply developing an additional concept to present to the community once they are comfortable with it. If so, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Also, in my opinion, the footpaths here are already wide enough to fit dining tables, like those that are already there, without having to remove parking spaces or spend a lot of tax payers money. Just have a look at the footpath alfresco dining all over Melbourne’s suburbs to see how they do it with much narrower footpaths than Wonthaggi already has! Try looking at Camberwell Junction to start with.
As Wonthaggi grows, we will need more parking, not less.

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Ian Chambers
17/12/2022 08:46:43 am

I am ashamed that due process was not carried out by council concerning the Activity centre project. The community engagement that council prides itself on was totally ignored.

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Catherine Watson
17/12/2022 11:05:04 am

Just because some traders think they own the road and footpath is no reason for the council to indulge their delusions.

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Neil Rankine
17/12/2022 07:48:37 pm

This consultation has been going on since I was on the council roughly 8 years ago. I deliberately absented myself from that consultation & decision making at the time as I own property in McBride Ave and that would have been a conflict of interest. I too have not been contacted about this new plan/proposal. Hopefully there will be substantial and broad consultation shortly, as what I read here is a very bad look indeed.

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Mark Robertson
19/12/2022 01:30:45 pm

Perhaps it is time the shire employed some consultants to explain why we keep engaging more consultants. Surely 400 council staff and interested community members could come up with a workable streetscape plan. Oh, wait, they already did.......

Reply
Nicky Miller
19/12/2022 08:15:34 pm

Thanks for this article.... Seems like 'sham' consultations take place at all levels of government.

Reply
Max Richter
25/12/2022 07:30:37 am

Thanks Frank for gathering these insights & getting them out there. I like many others put some solid hours into community input for making the streets of downtown Wonthaggi more pleasant. I can’t pretend to know all of the machinations inside government, but it is disconcerting that the web address you received for further information at that meeting has ‘major projects’ in it & is long redundant (now being ‘engage.basscoast..’). I’m happy to be part of any revitalised effort: I love Wonthaggi, but downtown could be better..

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Edward Buckingham
26/12/2022 11:40:46 am

This is a disappointing outcome.

Les Larke and this committee need to explain themselves.

Reply



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