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July Council Meeting Wrap Up

23 Jul 2021

Message from the Acting Mayor, Cr Mark Riley.

I wanted to share a few of the key decisions from our July Council Meeting.

Proposed future waste service
All Victorian councils need to reduce waste going to landfill and we also need to implement the new State Government requirements for 4 bins, including a glass only bin. Following earlier feedback from the community, we endorsed a new proposed model of waste service in Merri-bek, for a final phase of community consultation. The proposed new model includes 4 bins, and changes to sizes, scheduled pickups and cost.

Weekly collection of Food and Garden Organics (green lid). In the new model, all food waste plus garden organics will be put in this bin, not the garbage bin.

  • Fortnightly collection, alternate weeks, of Garbage (red lid) and Recycling (yellow lid).
  • A new Glass bin collected every 4 weeks
  • Updated 'standard' bin sizes, including upsize of the standard Garbage bin from 80L to 120L and upsize of the standard Recycling bin from 120L to 240L, to help with the change to fortnightly collection.
  • Additional concessions and options for households with nappies and particular medical needs.
  • Shared (communal) bins for all Council serviced multi-unit developments where space constraints mean servicing of multiple individual bins is difficult.
  • Collection of hard waste via a booking system all year round, rather than the current twice-yearly municipal-wide collections.

The proposed service was chosen based on feedback from the Merri-bek community. During that community engagement, we heard about the needs of different households. That's why we have included options to tailor the service to meet different needs, and expanded the types of households that can access additional or larger Garbage bins at a lower cost. Our proposed service also helps reduce the amount of waste to landfill.

We now invite the community to tell us what they think of the proposed service and help us make this for work for Merri-bek into the future. You can follow the project on conversationsmoreland.vic.gov.au. Community feedback will open in August 2021. The finalised changes to the waste service won't happen until 2022 and beyond.

Draft Hosken Reserve Master Plan
We unanimously endorsed Coburg North's draft Hosken Reserve Master Plan, which will now be released for a final round of community feedback. This followed an extensive community engagement process including valuable input from the Community Refresh Group, made up of 25 representatives from various resident, sporting and climate action groups.

Key aspects of the draft plan include a formalised natural turf pitch in the north and a hybrid turf pitch in the south, un-formalised natural turf junior football pitch, a central lawn area for non-formal sporting use, pavilion upgrades and renewals, an active recreation zone, nature play installations, potential community garden, improved public amenities and significant new tree planting.

The community will be invited to provide their feedback on the design concepts in the draft refreshed master plan between Monday 19 July and Monday 15 August. Feedback can be provided online, by email, by hardcopy or by attending one of the planned drop in events. Follow the project on conversations.moreland.vic.gov.au.

A Park close to home - Cardinal Road, Glenroy
We endorsed the final concept plan for our latest 'Park Close to Home' at Cardinal Road in Glenroy. Based on community feedback, this new park will be a 'relaxing' park, with lots of green space with shade trees, nature and sensory play, and planting of native species.

We heard from the community that they wanted 'something for everyone' and the final plan includes water play, gym equipment, a variety of play offerings for children of different ages along with various seats and recliners providing opportunities to rest and socialise in the new space.

Construction of the park is expected to start later this year, with completion expected in mid-2022.

Health and early years services at Glenroy Community Hub
We gave the go-ahead to formally enter into lease agreements with cohealth, to provide community health services, and Northern Schools Early Years Cluster Inc, to provide early years long day care and education services at the new Glenroy Community Hub when it opens in early 2022.

When complete, the Glenroy Community Hub will be home to Council’s community services in Glenroy, expanding and strengthening health and lifelong learning services and enhancing social opportunities for the Glenroy community.