Minutes of the Ordinary Meeting of the Greater Geelong City Council held at the Council Conference and Reception Centre in City Hall, 30 Gheringhap Street, Geelong on 25 July 2017, commencing at 6:30pm.
Daniel Ryan
Karen Firth
Tim O'Connor
Barry White
Ted Reeve
Catriona Rowntree
Dr K Alexander (Chair), L Gardner, P Dorling
K Spiller (Chief Executive Officer)
P Bettess (Director Manager Planning and Development)
B Luxford (Director Investment & Attraction)
P Godfrey (Acting Director City Services)
F Reidy (Acting Director Community Life)
J Moloney (Director Finance and Strategy)
A Keen (Executive Manager People and Organisational Development)
R Leonard (Senior Manager Legal Services & Governance)
The Acting Chair declared the meeting open at 6:30pm.
Council acknowledges Wadawurrung Traditional Owners of this land and all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People who are part of the Greater Geelong community today.
Nil.
L Gardner moved, P Dorling seconded -
That the Minutes of the Ordinary Meeting held on 27 June 2017 be confirmed.
Carried.
[Back to Top]Nil.
Question Time is an opportunity for questions to be addressed to Council and while the minutes record the general content, they do not purport to be a transcript of what was said by individuals. Likewise, the Interim Administrator or Officer verbal responses are in summary form only. Views expressed may not be the views of Council.
Council's practice is to provide a separate document on its website setting out questions and responses including any more detailed written responses which may be provided subsequent to the meeting.
The Acting Chair indicated that Council had received a large number of questions prior to this evening’s meeting, including sixteen relating to the Review of the Library Network. As a result, it is unlikely that there will be time to receive further questions from the floor.
Daniel Ryan asked questions regarding the Saleyards:
Why have you not listened to the advice from your Saleyards Advisory Committee and the clear majority show of hands at the Geelong West Town Hall Forum by pursuing the Colac Saleyards as a solution for small Geelong Region producers?
Kathy Alexander responded that very few Council decisions are based on a “show of hands”. It is really important to hear the views of the community but generally the decisions we make are a lot more complex. We have certainly heard the issues and concerns the farmers have but we do have to consider more broadly in the interest of the whole community. We have listened to the advice of the Saleyards Advisory Committee and the clear majority show of hands at the Geelong West Town Hall Forum.
Laurinda Gardner added in relation to the Advisory Committee, Council considers off of the advice and acts on some advice provided, but not all the advice.
Why have you not given consideration to the Ouyen model of saleyard management, we know this would work in Geelong as it would reduce the running costs at the Geelong Saleyards.
Kathy Alexander responded that Council is aware of the Ouyen model and is certainly within our range of consideration
On 2 August if you decide to build a new fit for purpose saleyard for small local farmers are you committed to using the proceeds of the existing yards to build the new one?
Kathy Alexander responded Council firstly needs to decide what to do with the existing Geelong Saleyards. There is no proposal regarding selling the existing Saleyards and therefore am unable to comment further.
Karen Firth asked question relating to the Community Engagement Policy:
The Community Engagement Policy refers to the City identifying appropriate engagement methods when “we’re changing something – for example levels of service” or “our decision is likely to impact on people. “We are glad to hear that in future you will be “upfront about how much opportunity there is to influence a decision”. In respect of the recent decision to close Barwon Heads Community Library, if this decision were to be made with the proposed draft Community Engagement Policy in place, which level of engagement would apply? Using the IAP2 Public Participation Spectrum what would the role of the community be in the process? What would be the Public Participation Goal and corresponding promise to the public? Would you empower us, collaborate, involve, consult or inform us in this specific case?
Kathy Alexander responded that the decisions of Council are generally very complex and the views of the community obviously are extremely important for us as are the views of the stakeholders who generally have very broad and diverse opinions about things, but generally these views are not necessarily sufficient for us to make a decision. What we want to know is how it impacts on the whole community. The Community Engagement Policy and Plan allows for greater community participation which will result in increased community confidence.
Tom O’Connor provided comments regarding Item 1, Amendment C352 and Item 3, Community Engagement Policy and Plan.
Barry White (representing the Lara Care Group) asked the following questions in relation to the need for a Traffic Management Plan for Lara:
commence development of a traffic management plan for Lara and the surrounding region to respond to current problems and present options to manage future growth.
Kathy Alexander suggested a meeting be arranged with Peter Godfrey (Acting Director City Services) and the Lara Care Group to discuss these issues and work towards the development of a strategy.
Peter Dorling added his support in terms of the need to get together and work towards developing a traffic management plan for Lara.
Ted Reeve – volunteer member of the Corio Unit of SES and asked his questions as a private citizen and not as a representative of the SES:
Corio SES operates with two vehicles and a third is due for delivery in September. As you may be aware, we currently lease part of the City of Greater Geelong’s Anakie Road depot where we have room for one vehicle, office accommodation and use of the meeting room for training activities. We have outgrown this facility and already have had to ask Lara CFA to look after one vehicle and hope that they will be able to accommodate a new one due in September. This accommodation issue fragments the Unit and make response to emergency calls just that much more difficult.
Recently, local State Government MP, Minister John Eren, visited our Unit to announce the allocation of $1.6m in the 2017-18 budget for an upgrade and/or relocation of the Corio SES Unit facility.
We have now been informed that this allocation is for the building only and the CoGG land required still needs to be sourced and funded.
My question is, can Council assist in identifying and allocating a suitable side for the new SES Unit?
Kathy Alexander suggested Mr White provide his contact details to Jo Moloney (Director Finance and Strategy) who will assist with this issue.
Catriona Rowntree asked the following questions on behalf of Sally Nicholas – representing The You Yangs Protection Group:
Our concerns of the traffic issues of Lara/Little River are the large volume of quarry trucks that are B Doubles and gross at 68 tonne travelling on our narrow country roads that are NOT B double rates roads;
The danger to the thousands of international tourists who visit the You Yangs to see our unique wildlife and the cyclists who frequent our roads;
These trucks work from 4am to 10.30pm Monday to Friday and also work on Saturdays.
Should there not be time restrictions in place for them travelling through the township of Little River?
They travel through the township and over the historic bluestone Grants Bridge on You Yangs Road. These roads are not B Double rated roads and should not be used for this type of traffic.
In conclusion, the YYPG request that a weight limit of 20 tonne be placed on these rural roads to protect the township of Little River, visitors and residents.
Rubbish dumped on roadside is a real eye sore going into the You Yangs?
Peter Bettess advised the issue surrounding speed limits is the responsibility of VicRoads.
Further, adjusting the hours of operation for the quarries would be difficult as previous approvals would probably be very old and may not have time limits which would have to have the approval of the operators.
Kathy Alexander added in relation to the dumping of goods on the side of the road by the public, Peter Godfrey has a response team to deal with their removal, but we need to know about it.
Nil.
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