Council meets in Parkville

On Tuesday, April 12, Melbourne City Council held its first ever Future Melbourne Meeting in Parkville at the Treacy Centre.

The meeting was attended by the majority of councillors and many local residents including five members of the Parkville Association committee.

Apparently, the number of attendees was one of the larger roll outs as these community meetings, which are taken from Town Hall to various city suburbs.

It was very interesting to see how the meeting was conducted, particularly on the planning side of things. It certainly gave an insight as to how prepared we need to be should we ever need to argue a case against an application!

On that subject amended plans have been submitted for 35-39 Royal Parade which will be available to us after ANZAC weekend.

From the floor I asked whether rumours were true that the council was considering going against guarantees that Grattan St West would be reopened on completion of Parkville Station.

The council reverted on the matter taking the question on notice. I have alerted the Carlton Residents’ Association as the reopening is critical to both groups and, of course, the Carlton traders!  

Following our annual general meeting (AGM), I took Nas Mohamud – our community liaison representative from the council – on a tour of Parkville.

It helped us both establish how the role would work, and for Nas, the size of Parkville. Driving around our full boundary with more than four square kilometres and a population of 7500 we are an important part of the city.

Throw in the medical and biotech precinct and we are very vital to the future of Victoria.

On that subject, it was thrilling to note Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, a major French organisation, has announced it is headquartering its Pacific operation in Parkville.

On local matters a full traffic survey will be conducted in South Parkville in May looking at volumes, speeding and rat running.

Clearly post-COVID traffic is returning to normal, and, in fact, Gatehouse St appears even busier than normal. 

On ANZAC Day we had a small get together at the War Memorial on Royal Parade, where we heard some tales of Parkville residents who lost their lives during World War One •