Meeting 2012

Community Meeting to support Defining the Neighbourhood Character of Ballarat East

On Sunday March 18th at 2pm people from Ballarat East gathered at the local school library to continue a public discussion about feeling under siege from over-development. It was a fabulous response by weary residents who have been fighting inappropriate development in the area for many years.

All the documentation that was gathered on the day is posted here in the fervent hope it is useful to residents, resident groups, council officers, Councillors, developers and other communities who we know are currently working hard to ensure a sustainable future in their suburbs.

We hope that you might make comment (please note this is moderated) on each page you read, share, like, don’t like and we hope that you share it widely. Join our facebook group for updates also. The meeting generated the following information (click on each for a link the page), and can also be found by clicking on main menu “Meeting 2012” above and then on the drop down menu.

Information available (click on red title):

• Action Steps – this is a list, in no particular order, of action steps suggested during a brainstorm and discussion about how best the council could support better outcomes in Ballarat East. These steps will be taken officially to council for comment.
• Action Plan – this was presented by Cr Ben Taylor and Cr Des Hudson, and is not verbatim, nor is it a promise nor guarantee of how things will proceed. It was a promise to follow up on these issues, residents will need to give these Councillors support to review these issues.
• Resident Options – this is a suggested list of actions that residents can take as individuals to support better development outcomes in Ballarat East. We would LOVE you to add to this, by making a comment at the bottom of the page.
• Overview of the Issues – this was a presentation by resident Erin McCuskey, spokesperson for BE Net, attempting to sum up the current situation and how residents are feeling about the current siege in Ballarat East.
• A Resident’s Look at the Process – this was a presentation by local resident Diane Chester, looking at how the planning permit application works and how residents can be involved.
• Good Planning – these are notes made during a presentation by Eric Brasilis and Sean O’Keeffe, council officers.
• A Short History – this was a presentation by local historian Edith Fry, reviewing how Ballarat East got to where we live today, the Gold Rush, the mining, the mullock heaps, our own council, town hall and avenue of honour to today which support the fight inside every resident of Ballarat East.
• What is Ballarat East – this was a brainstorm about the boundaries of Ballarat East and how we would describe our beautiful suburb, a useful start to defining Neighborhood Character.
• Minutes – inc acknowledgement of country, welcome, attendance & apologies of public figures, and the important thank you list. The minutes are not an exact blow by blow description, nor do they contain exact quotes. Our fabulous minutes takes (Alice & Edith) wrote their big hearts out, and we very much appreciate the effort. We would hope to video or audio record our next meeting.
• Questions – a list of questions that were raised on the day – we will draw attention to these over the next few weeks and post answers as they arise. Some questions about specific developments are best presented to council officers directly, and we encourage you to do this to ensure you get the specific answers you need.

Many thanks to local company 15 Trees who will reduce the carbon footprint of this meeting through planting trees with the Ballarat Environment Network (BEN).

The action group who initiated, created, promoted, catered and presented were Erin McCuskey, Diane Chester, Judy Robinson, Edith Fry, Judy Robinson, Alice Christie and Damian & Bernadette Woods, with awesome help from Jeff Rootes, Len Robinson, Norm Christie, Michael Gwyther, their kids, neighbours and families…