Minutes of the Ordinary Meeting of the Greater Geelong City Council held at the Council Conference and Reception Centre in City Hall, 57 Little Malop Street, Geelong on 28 January 2020, commencing at 7:00pm.
Nancy Donkers
Jarred Crowe
Steven Cincurak
Erica Hunt
Roma Goeppert
Ross Carlson
Terri Spronken
Councillors:
S Asher (Mayor)
A Aitken
K Grzybek
B Harwood
E Kontelj
J Mason
P Murnane
P Murrihy
R Nelson
T Sullivan
M Cutter (Chief Executive Officer)
B Luxford (Director Economy, Investment and Attraction)
G Smith (Director Planning, Design and Development)
M Dugina (Director Customer and Corporate Services)
R Stevens (Director Community Life)
R Leonard (Director Governance, Strategy and Performance)
K Phyland (Director People and Culture)
The Mayor declared the meeting open at 7:00pm.
Council acknowledged Wadawurrung Traditional Owners of this land and all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People who are part of the Greater Geelong community today.
Councillor Mansfield (leave of absence).
Councillorr Asher moved, Councillor Grzybek seconded –
That Leave of Absence be granted to Cr Kontelj on Tuesday, 11 February 2020.
Carried.
Councillor Murrihy moved, Councillor Mason seconded -
That the Minutes of the Ordinary Meeting held on 10 December 2019 be confirmed.
Carried.
Councillr Kontelj declared ‘A Close Association’ in Agenda Item 10 – Tender T2000020 – Anakie Pavement Rehabilitation and Widening, Lovely Banks in that the successful tender applicant is a customer of the company he is a Director of.
Nancy Donkers asked the following in relation to the Grovedale Community Orchard:
Grovedale Community Orchard is an open planting of fruit trees and companion plants within a recreation reserve. It has been established and maintained by a small group of volunteers for over 5 years. Our community orchard contributes to food security by provision of free, accessible, seasonal fruit and reduces the need to transport produce from outside the area. It also provides a space for both recreation and education around food production. Last year due to the waste crisis affecting City of Greater Geelong we instigated a community composting system including several in ground worm farms and composting bins to assist all local residents to eliminate food waste (the largest contributor to landfill waste) from red bins. This system is utilised by the community. The community orchard is assisting COGG to meet many sustainability commitments including many of the One Planet Living Principles and we anticipate this work will be an important part of COGGS upcoming Sustainability Framework in addressing food insecurity resulting from climate change. Currently we are required to pay a yearly lease to COGG in order to work on this site for the community. We don’t believe we should be paying a lease to council. We would like COGG to view the orchard as part of its sustainability work within the community. Why are we being required to pay a lease as a group of volunteers simply growing and maintaining food within a public space for the community?
Michael Dugina commended the work done by the community volunteers to keep the garden maintained and operational. The license agreement is held with Transition South Barwon, in June 2014 Transition South Barwon were approved for a grant $3123) to set up an open space community orchard, the grant request was for site preparation, irrigation, water tank and signage. The City also provided some seedlings towards the initial set up. The Licence agreement was finalised in September 2014 with the support of Property, Sport & Recreation and Tree Services. The original licence agreement was a 3 year agreement, the annual lease amount is $183.60 plus GST, the agreement has been placed in over holding whilst we work on the Community Leasing policy. This fee is comparable to other community gardens across the city, where leases range from $154-$185 annually. All community gardens are accessible to the community at all times.
We have unsuccessfully raised this issue a number of times with council. We have been told that all community groups utilising council land are required to pay the same lease. We differ significantly from the other groups and entities who are required to pay a lease to Council in that the site is open and accessible to everyone at all times, all benefits associated with the site (in the form of fruit) are freely available to all, we have no exclusive use of the site, there are no buildings, structures or fences on the site In the case of the only other orchard at Whittington, council maintains this site and no community members are required to pay a lease. It seems unfair that because we have people who are willing to work on and maintain the orchard we are then required to pay money. The other group whom is most like ours is Friends of the Waurn Ponds Creek who plant and look after native plantings along the Waurn Ponds Creek in a similar way to our group tends the orchard site. This group is also not required to pay any form of lease to Council.
Could we please be acknowledged as a group that does not fit within the current lease system and another agreement be established whereby Transition South Barwon could continue to cover insurance without volunteers being forced to find money to provide this vital food security for the community?
Michael Dugina advised that The Friends of the Waurn Ponds Creek group are maintaining the trees on State Crown Land not Council land, and are directly not comparable. The specified purpose on the license agreement states, ‘The planting and maintaining of fruit trees within an open, unfenced area at the premises known as Grovedale Recreation Reserve’ this agreement is in line with the business plan of Transition South Barwon to enable an open space orchard for community access. Grovedale Community Garden also received a $10,000 grant in the 2017/18 Environment and Sustainability grant Program, which included a partnership between Transition South Barwon, Grovedale Community Orchard, Grovedale Neighbourhood House and Grovedale Community Garden for a Grow it, Eat it series of events. During 2020 the City will be undergoing a review of the leasing and licensing policy and it will closely look at the leases such as this. It is requested that Transition South Barwon continue to pay the lease as laid out in the lease agreement.
Jarred Crowe asked the following regarding LED Lighting:
Over summer I spent a fair amount of time at Torquay where I noticed the Surf Coast Shire has almost completely shifted their street light network to new more efficient L.E.D (Light Emitting Diode) lights. When heading back to Geelong it seems that our city is lagging behind our neighbours in implementing this new technology. L.E.D lights emit next to no heat compared to traditional sodium vapour lights that waste around 15% of the energy used to power them due to heat dissipation. Although there are significant upfront installation costs this technology will significantly reduce maintenance and operational costs making widespread installation viable in the long term. Switching to L.E.D will significantly contribute to minimizing Geelong’s impact on the environment as we will be using less energy to keep our streets safe at night. L.E.Ds also have a longer lifespan and a more natural colour temperature compared to older technologies It is worth noting that there are a few areas where the city has made leaps with this technology in Portarlington, Fyansford and near St John of God, but it is time for widespread adoption throughout Greater Geelong. So I ask the Council - Do you have a plan to transition our street light network to efficient L.E.D’s? Will you review the Street and Public Place Lighting Policy that has not been updated since 2008?
Guy Wilson Browne responded that the Geelong Council has recently (mid 2019) approved funding to proceed with the bulk conversion of all non-efficient legacy lighting to modern LED’s with smart control technology. Due to the size and large quantity of lights in the City of Greater Geelong, this process involves significant planning and design, which will also ensure that the new lighting design will provide a higher level of safety to both road users and residents. The design process and procurement process will be completed through 2020, and installation is expected to begin by the start of 2021 and completed over a 3 year period. Lighting specifications and policies will be reviewed and updated during this process. The street light changeover is one of a number of significant projects which will ensure we meet our community and Council emission reduction targets. The streetlight changeover will result in greenhouse emissions (CO2) reduction of 8,664 tonnes per annum.
Steven Cincurak asked questions relating to personnel matters. Because the matters raised related to personal information, the City is unable to publish the contents of the questions. A response will be provided directly by the Chief Executive Officer.
Erica Hunt asked the following questions on behalf of Sanja Van Huet:
My questions concern the COGG Sustainability Framework Project Brief. I highlight Mayor Asher’s September 2019 comment that there is climate related urgency (but COGG is not ready to declare an emergency). In the sustainability framework brief it is stated that there is a 30 year timeline to have the successes itemized in 2016 community led vision; to be completed by 2047. In view of current events, isn’t 27 years an overlong time for these achievements – and shouldn’t this be accelerated considering there is urgency?
Wording in the Sustainability Brief is highly ambiguous. The amended Notice of Motion, (highlighted in the brief) requests a practical reference point that focuses only on the COGG strategy, and operations, across the organization… and the key deliverables are focused on this. From this – it appears that Council only is the focus of the Framework – not the municipality as a whole. I would ask for clarification that the Framework brief targets not just Council but also all areas within the Municipal boundaries.
When is the proposed release of the Framework to the public and also what date will the first steps be implemented regarding the recommended actions?
The Mayor thanked Erica for the questions and took the opportunity to clearly define the Council, the City and the municipality because it can all become very confusing.
Council is the collective of all of your elected representatives sitting here tonight;
the organisation that is headed up by its CEO, and delivers services to the community; and
The municipality is the area within which the City operates.
The purpose of the Sustainability Framework is to guide the City across all of its functions and activities that it delivers for its community.
The Sustainability Framework will be released with the Agenda Papers prior to the 25 February Council Meeting. The report to Council will include key actions and when they will be implemented.
In relation to the reference to the Sustainability Framework brief and its reference to the Clever and Creative Vision, this is a community-created vision and it will evolve over time. The Vision will be reviewed periodically by the community and updated to reflect the communities’ views at that time. The section in the Sustainability Framework Brief that you refer to reflects the outcome of the Vision process and provides a background context to work within.
Erica Hunt asked if Council will have a presence of officers and Councillors at the Summit?
The Mayor responded, “yes we will”.
Roman Goeppert followed up on the idea to move kerbside collection to one side of the street, where possible. Can the first test project start with the two U-Shape streets Oriondo Way and Sutalo Street in Marshall by the 1 November this year?
Guy Wilson-Browne advised Council is discussing this proposal with its kerbside bin collection contractor Cleanaway.
Also, following up on the container deposit scheme by the 1st April this year, could you please organise a meeting for the Victorian Environment Minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, any other relevant people and myself to plan a retailer container deposit scheme where the deposit containers are inside the retailer outlet to copy Germany’s war on waste? Please help to take the recycling burden for plastic bottles and drink cans from the Councils to the retailer with a Victorian state law?
Council supports the introduction of a Container Deposit Scheme and has lobbied the Victorian government to introduce a scheme.
The Victorian government is currently reviewing recycling processes and practices in Victoria and Council will continue to lobby for a scheme through these processes.
Infrastructure Victoria released the Recycling and resource recovery infrastructure Evidence Base Report in October 2019. With respect to the State Container Deposit Scheme the following is an extract from that Report:
“A container deposit scheme (CDS) is a common and popular approach to improving the recyclable quality of beverage packaging, such as glass and plastic. It leads to cleaner material streams and higher recovery rates, by diverting these materials out of co-mingled recycling. Our preliminary view is that a CDS has promise but needs more analysis on how best to design an optimal scheme for Victoria, along with potential changes to kerbside collections”
The Mayor responded that questions asked by Ross Carlson and Terri Spronken in relation to Amendment 373 – Hams Road, Waurn Ponds was a matter which will be debated later in the evening. So as not to pre-empt the outcome of the Council’s decision this evening, we are unable to provide you with a response.
Nil.
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