Clash of priorities in local government
John Mosig
I recently attended my first Boroondara Council meeting, an experience that has left me puzzled as to what are and should be the necessary priorities of local government.
I was motivated to attend the 5 August meeting by a flyer in my letterbox alerting ratepayers to a vote that was raising concern amongst Boroondara property owners. My attention was caught by the provocative claims being made in the flyer. Councillors were being asked to decide whether eight local buildings deserved heritage classification. Several had been nominated under changed procedures initiated in 2023 that allows members of the public to make nominations even if non-residents.
The auditorium was filled to overflowing with a cross section of modern Australia. It was a rowdy meeting and those who had applied to address the meeting gave a good account of themselves. The agenda paper prepared by council officers rejected claims that racial targeting had played any part of the assessment process.
The anxiety of those drawn into the controversy financially was palpable, but the issue, to my mind, overlooked what should be concerning the citizens of wider Melbourne, not just Boroondara. We should be preparing our living and commercial spaces for climatic conditions we have not before faced as a community.
We’re certainly lucky to be living amongst the old-world charm of Boroondara. From golden colonial times to the post-war booms of the 1920s and 1950/60s, the area boasts outstanding housing, parks and recreation facilities. However, climate change is going to challenge us in ways neither the municipal infrastructure of the previous 150 years nor our current planning criteria are in any way prepared.
The power hungry, boundary-to-boundary fortresses replacing the free-standing domiciles of previous eras are Boroondara’s housing stock for the next 100 years. Gone are the canopy trees and flower beds, the kitchen gardens and fruit trees. Gone is the open ground that used to draw rainfall down into the water table. This has all been permitted under the watchful eye of the elected councillors of Boroondara.
Canopy cover has attracted much attention. We’ve been blessed with coolish/dampish summers since the blazing Millennial Drought that saw torrid northerly winds dry and strip the leaves from the deciduous, street trees.
The evergreens – conifers, melaleucas and eucalypts – fared better, but faced with a withering water table, how long can they hold on? How would their stressed limbs and butts stand against the likes of windstorms that ripped through Whitehorse LGA late last month? Not to mention the Dandenongs and South Gippsland in recent times? Is it time to ask how much of this risk is being factored into careering household insurance premiums?
Also at issue is stormwater drainage capability. With less rainfall able to be absorbed, runoff from more frequent storm events will only increase. Should Council regulate how much of the block must be kept as ‘open ground’? What steps are being taken to upgrade the capacity of the stormwater drainage network to cope with the vastly altered hydrology of the City?
None of these issues fell within the scope of the vote taken to streamline the process of nomination for heritage listing. That motion, after amendments were rejected, was carried.
Whether this opens the floodgates to vexatious nominations would be difficult to determine. One thing is for sure though; if the nominations do increase, the financial burden of the processing, regardless of outcome, will increase the workload on Council officers. A cost that will be carried by the Boroondara ratepayers.
The meeting proved to be a revealing insight into the workings of local government. With the October elections coming up, I can tell you, a night at a council meeting is time well-spent.
First published in Eastsider News edition 25, September 2024