It was lodged friday,and is being paid for by them

Easy for you to say.

http://brimbank-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/surprise-no-surplus-for-brimbank-council/


Surprise! No surplus for Brimbank Council

* news
o Council

01 Dec 09 @ 05:00am by Helen Jacobs

HUNDREDS of thousands of dollars in federal and state government grants have been awarded to Brimbank Council over three months.

But the windfall didn’t stop the council from missing its predicted surplus for the first quarter by more than $4 million.

The quarterly financial statement tabled at last week’s council meeting showed a surplus of $3.5 million as at September 30, compared to a budgeted surplus of $7.8 million.

The council said $6 million in income - a $3 million grant from the Victorian Grant Commission and $3 million in Federal Government grants - was included in this financial year’s budget but it was actually accounted for in the 2008-09 financial year, which affected the figures.

Another $1.7 million allotted for the quarter was yet to be spent.

During the three months to September 30 the council applied for 10 grants.

It received $222,000 out of a possible $493,000.

The council was unsuccessful in its application to Sports and Recreation Victoria for a $100,000 central irrigation system. Two applications were still pending.

It spent $3.6 million on capital works and collected almost $24,000 in rates and charges.

http://melton-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/comments/melton-council-on-lookout-for-new-name/

Cat Friend writes:

What’s with councils looking at ways to waste money?
Shire, City… it makes not a jot of difference - unless you’re a councillor trying to justify your capacity as a serving officer.

How has it benefitted Brimbank to be City - look at the shame brought upon the council officers there, who were sacked because of appalling mismanagement.

Councils seem to suffer from dysfunctional incompetence.

Stop wasting rate payers’ money.

http://brimbank-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/my-door-s-open-says-brimbank-chief/

Marion Martin, a councillor until September last year, said Mr Lewinsky and fellow administrators Meredith Sussex and Joanne Anderson were not contactable and spent "maybe eight hours a week in the municipality".

"Councillors had a phone number that can be rung any time of the day or night. If you try and ring an administrator you can’t get them."

Another former councillor, Margaret Giudice, said the "community ties" were no longer there.

Mr Lewinsky said mobile phone numbers for the administrators were on the council website.

He said he wasn't offended by the claims, simply because they "are all incorrect".

http://brimbank-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/brimbank-councillors-sacked-still-paid-up/

ONLY two of the 11 Brimbank councillors sacked last September have fully reimbursed their allowances to council.

Brimbank Council has sent three reminder letters to the councillors requesting they return $5677 each.

Former Mayor Troy Atanasovski has a whopping $18,278 to repay.

Ex-councillors Marion Martin, Margaret Giudice and Sam David said they had not attempted to pay because they were still considering legal action against the State Government over their dismissal.

I chanced upon a display at the Sunshine Plaza today showing the Council's planned changes to Hampshire Rd in between the Plaza and Marketplace shopping centres. It included a design concept and the materials to be incorporated. I think BCC should immediately register as a power generator from hotrocks (in front of the Plaza)!

I AM FURIOUS! WHY DO WE WASTE OUR TIME, ENERGY AND GOODWILL TALKING TO BCC! PLAYING ALONG THEIR CONSULTATION GAME.

Now, I thought the aim of good urban design was to ensure safe and universally accessible public spaces. I think the current design was defined ONLY by referenc to aesthetics of architecture with sweeping stairs and narrow shelf levels which would be useless to restrateurs who might have used this for open air cafes. Further, the amphitheatre-like steps will be a fantastic place to 'hang' until your arse gets burned on the hot rock steps facing due west during summer.

Who is not allowed to use this architecturally aesthetically designed space?

Parents with children in prams
Disabled people in wheelchairs
Disabled people on electric scooters
Older people challenged by stairs
Younger people challenged by stairs
Toddlers not used to stairs
People who could use stairs if handrails were provided to steady them
People who shop with shopping trolleys (to wit ME!)
People on crutches (OK the braver of you might do the stairs but those textured pavers might undo you)

Did we or did we not point out the need to include disabled access to the planning staff who attended a SunRRA meeting last year? Why was this concern, which goes to the very heart of accessibility ignored? Wasn't it 'aesthetic' enough for someone's ego? Is it better for Council to be sued by individuals who will be denied access? Or those who come to grief because of the lack of handrails?

There is now no taxi pickup point, no 'safe' pick up point for shoppers, the post box must be moving down to Hampshire Rd, no place for the community shopping bus to stop, no safe access for late night shoppers.

I didn't look hard at the Marketplace side either so I could be wrong, but I had the impression that that nice shallow ramp that allows prams, trolleys, bikes and the disabled to safely go up adn down, is also gone, replaced by stairs to mirror the aesthetics of a waterfall on either side of Hampshire Rd.

And, no, despite the increase in traffic turning out of Service St since the Plaza reverted back to its original upper level parking style, the pedestrian-light zone has not been extended to enable safe pedestrian crossing of and traffic flow from Service St.

And I hate the colour of the feature pavers which are the same as outside Centrelink. Much prefer an orange terracotta look than a that harsh dark pink look.

Yes, I know I don't post when you're mad but better this intemperate post than speaking to them directly(could not be civil at the moment).

I swear, I could not handle another monumental stuff up of Hampshire Road. This sounds atrocious.

People have to live here for the long term unlike wannabe town planners who come and go. i.e. whoever it was that approved the positioning of dump masters and water tanks on our boulevard that are the lovely view of the marketplace should be shot.
If they much this up I am going to SPEW UP.

Not again wrote:
I swear, I could not handle another monumental stuff up of Hampshire Road. This sounds atrocious.

People have to live here for the long term unlike wannabe town planners who come and go. i.e. whoever it was that approved the positioning of dump masters and water tanks on our boulevard that are the lovely view of the marketplace should be shot.
If they much this up I am going to SPEW UP. If making the street 'pretty' is all that matters to you, then you have your wish. The amphitheatre terrace effect will definitely be pretty when it's new but trust Brimbank, with a little of their usual maintenance regimen, it will be dirty and ugly. Don't know who will be responsible for cleaning the rock terrace, but the little green scarab won't fit and, if the train station is anything to go by, the steps will become filthy soon. Yes, definitely pretty, for now.

They offered us a wide terrace with cafe living but instead we get skinny little terraces that only the young, fit able and daredevil skateboarders can use.

We will lose a slip road in front of the Plaza which is constantly in use and enhances access for people who cannot do stairs or have babies in prams to use to get up to the Plaza. It provides a convenient pickup point for shoppers (old and young), short term parking near ATMs, a taxi pickup point and small deliveries to the shops.

What do we get? A rock terrace, pretty to look at (initially) nice to sit on in winter, unusable in summer. Totally unaccessible to mothers with children in prams, the disabled, shoppers with trolleys, people on walking frames Traffic from the slip road is diverted to increase Hampshire Rd/Service St traffic. A nice funnel for road noise and fumes to those sitting above.

But the design fails completely to address the biggest problem - the pedestrian interface. A few pavers does not make crossing Hampshire Road safer. Traffic has increased in this area since the Plaza's reverted to its original parking deck design plus the pool opened.

I have watched in horror as a barely moving old woman pushed her empty shopping jeep straight into Hampshire Rd and slowly creapt over the road, cars stopping sharply, honking, and a near miss. It didn't help that we had a hoon driver bent on showing his skills up at the Hertford Rd lights, either. The old lady is typical of people with movement problems, it takes her ages to walk all the way down to the pedestrian lights and then have to walk all the way back up to where she wanted to be. That is, the lights were too limited to be of use to her and also did not provide a normal ramp access on the plaza side.

In another example, a young mother with a baby in a stroller and a toddler by her side struggled to quickly cross the road directly from the bus stop on the Plaza side to the Marketplace side. One of the myriad bundles of shopping came adrift and fell into the middle of the road, into the path of oncoming traffic. In confusion, she turned to retrieve the shopping, the stroller was about to overbalance and the children were left in the middle of moving traffic. Thankfully, a quickwitted young man came to the mother's rescue.

The issue here is that the pedestrian lights need to be extended to cover the range from Service St to Hertford Rd, a bit like those outside the Queensbridge Hotel near the casino in the city.

It seems we have a choice between a 'pretty' zone and a safe, functional zone. I had hoped we could get both. Clearly this design makes 'pretty' the priority. A true triumph of form over substance.

Easy
Close it off between 9am to 6pm
Traffic can use Foundry rd and
Harvester rd turning into Hertford rd
its also quicker

Form over substance wrote:
Not again wrote:
I swear, I could not handle another monumental stuff up of Hampshire Road. This sounds atrocious.

People have to live here for the long term unlike wannabe town planners who come and go. i.e. whoever it was that approved the positioning of dump masters and water tanks on our boulevard that are the lovely view of the marketplace should be shot.
If they much this up I am going to SPEW UP. If making the street 'pretty' is all that matters to you, then you have your wish.

Who said anything about wanting some thing pretty. I just want it planned so that it all works properly for pedestrians and so it doesn't look like a complete stuff up like the marketplace was.

Where can I see these plans? I'm guessing it's obviously too late for any input? No pram access... this sounds like a nightmare.