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Sunshine Residents & Ratepayers Association |
Help protect your street trees.
Street trees are a community asset that help make our suburb more livable. They keep temperatures down, provide welcome shade in summer and attract birds and other wildlife.
Unfortunately in times of drought the trees suffer through council neglect and lack of water.
Help your neighbourhood by giving your trees a regular bucket of water.
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In the Papers  'Letters to the editor' from SunRRA members and local residents that appear in our local papers. You can add your comments to these articles in the forum.
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In The Papers
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Saturday, 07 October 2006 |
Brimbank Mayor Natalie Suleyman's backflip on the Sunshine Pool is one for the textbooks.
If you recall, the council had already voted to go ahead with Stage 2 of the pool works (ie a 50m pool). Then the mayor decided what Stage 2 might possibly mean.
It could mean a new roof possibly, or improvements to the gym - in short, it could mean anything BUT a 50m pool.
This play-of-words involving Council motions is typical at Brimbank and deserves a colour brochure each time.
Think of our community centres for instance. What is a community centre if not a place where people meet? In Brimbank, it is also known as the footpath.
Q: So after spending $9.5 million AND reading the glossy colour brochure, what if you STILL can't get in for a swim?
A: You can stand on the Community Centre outside.
Restore Pool
Advocate 26.9.06
We used to say years ago, rather flippantly, that the responsibility of local government was roads, rates and rubbish.
Several days ago, I received my rate notice for $940.
In the same envelope was enclosed an expensive, colour brochure with the caption "Sunshine... the centre for everybody".
Everybody but the young families of this city who want their 50m pool - a training pool - restored.
For more than 10 years, with many other individuals and families, I have appealed for the restoration of the outdoor pool.
Recently the council agreed, but has now gone back on it's word. I strongly object to my rates being used for this misleading publication, which could be included in the third sector of the three Rs.
Gwen Goedecke
North Sunshine
{mos_sb_discuss:2} |
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In The Papers
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Thursday, 20 July 2006 |
It is often interesting to take two different newspaper stories and put them together to make a third story that is yet to be written. This is one of those.
A shocking story in the Star last week (11.07.06) about Sunshine traders calling for action on drunken abuse. Two women on Hampshire Rd complained a drunken person had threatened to shoot them and bomb their cafe. (p.3) The man had been harassing other traders before he entered their shop.
Threats to kill would normally be taken very seriously, though perhaps not in Sunshine. The man was drunk after all and therefore could not have been a terrorist, for example. Still, the women feared for their safety and that is simply unacceptable.
Brimbank District Police Inspector Scott Mahoney had his own views, and advised that Brimbank is a different ballgame.
If the Council sees fit to declare the area an alcohol free zone and if they're prepared to establish laws accordingly to prosecute them, then we'll be happy to issue penalty notices he said.
The District Inspector is waiting for Brimbank Council to make new laws (!!) and that is the first story.
The second story comes from the Age today (20.7.06) which quotes the Victorian Ombudsman as saying Victoria is the only State in Australia where being drunk in a public place is of itself a criminal offence.
An Ombudsman's report condemns conditions in gaols (p.3) and finds breaches of United Nations standards in Victoria's Custody System. A report from the Ombudsman four years ago also found serious flaws in the System, and the recommendations from that time have been ignored.
The Ombudsman's statement confirms that public drunkenness is a criminal offence in Victoria, that is the second story.
The third story is that criminal acts on Sunshine streets are condoned at the highest levels. I dont know which of the three stories is more shocking.
{mos_sb_discuss:2} |
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In The Papers
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Sunday, 02 July 2006 |
News of yet another death on Furlong Road, outside the Sunshine Hospital, has had them scurrying around all week trying to cover up the years of neglect. A mother of 7 was killed crossing the road, after five years of unsuccessful lobbying to have a pedestrian crossing installed at the location.
Over 19,000 vehicles pass the site every day on the four-lane feeder road. It has been the scene of 5 pedestrian accidents in 5 years.
The Brimbank Leader (27.6.06 p1) reports VicRoads saying in 2005: The site does not meet the necessary criteria to warrant the installation of signals at this stage. Yet one day after the accident, they announced plans to start work. State Government funding was allocated for the project in the 2005/6 budget one year ago.
The unforgivable tragedy could have been avoided but for the delay. A pedestrian crossing and better lighting may well have prevented the tragedy, according to a spokesman for the Police major collision investigation unit (Advocate, 27.6.06).
A clear pattern of neglect has emerged in the West, the result of an incompetent council fumbling aimlessly with an uncaring and remote State government.
Who has forgotten about the lights installed at the corner of Fitzgerald and Tilburn Rds? The lights remained out of service for almost three years before they were switched on. (Brimbank Leader).
In February there were reports of a pedestrian accident on Main Rd. A young girl was hit by a car while walking to school. The student's shocked mother said I went down next morning and had a look... there's not even a crossing near the school. (Leader 14.2.06)
Councillor Capar's recent motion to the council, That traffic management measures previously identified for Billingham Road, Deer Park, be investigated, hides a similar neglect. The roundabouts were approved but never built. They could have prevented an accident where a car ran into the bedroom of a house. In Brimbank you are not even safe even in your own bed from the institutionalised bumbling.
As serious as these indications of a pattern of neglect are, they only scratch the surface of what is really happening out here. Add the overloaded trains, the chronic problems associated with some of the highest gambling taxes in Victoria, the 14 years to act on the Sunshine Swimming Pools (and still not getting anywhere - ed), the poor state of public parks and sports facilities - the evidence mounts to make a formidable argument.
Clearly our elected representatives have no intention of changing their pattern of neglect. It is well past time that residents took their revenge at the ballot box.
{mos_sb_discuss:10} |
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In The Papers
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Tuesday, 27 June 2006 |
The year in the papers got off to a fantastic start for Sunshine residents, with a front-page photo of our derelict 50m pool in the Age . The sun's shining, so why is this pool empty and in such a mess? it asks.
Why, indeed.
The short answer is, Brimbank Council. It's normally droll Peter Collina had a go at answering but just put his foot in his mouth, as is the usual case here at Brimbank these days.
Apart from the cost of having to heat it, the pool could only be used for three to four months of the year, he said.
Maybe you can figure that out, I can't.
Meanwhile a spokeman for Sports Minister Justin "Jockstrap" Madden denied the Government was failing people in the West.No point repeating here what he said, since it sounds more than a little foolish in face of the facts.
Once again, the problem can be put down to living in a safe Labor seat. The observation by the Age can be summed up as follows:
John Thwaites' (marginal) electorate gets $52 million for a new pool. At the same time Bruce Mildenhall's (safe labor) electorate gets nothing. End of story.
Bruce of course, has now lost TWO pools for the people of his electorate, the Footscray pool and the Sunshine pool. Obviously, the sooner this man gets a right proper kick in the @rse, the better it will be for everyone concerned.
{mos_sb_discuss:6} |
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In The Papers
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Monday, 02 January 2006 |
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Letters to The Age - published 2/1/2006
SATURDAY'S temperature reached 42 degrees, and for the 14th straight summer, three outdoor swimming pools in Melbourne's third most disadvantaged suburb, Sunshine, remain closed to the public. Our government has $52 million to spend on refurbishments to the Melbourne Aquatic Centre for the Commonwealth Games, yet the folks out here in Labor's heartland continue to go without essential recreational services.
Daniel Gaylor, Sunshine. |
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In the Papers 
