Darebin street safety projects under threat
Update: 8 January 2024: Hi everyone, we were notified that our submission regarding the Your Street, Your Say rescission motion for tonight’s special Council meeting (See below) cannot be accepted due to the governance rules for special meetings.
“14.1. Community Submissions
(1) Members of the public may only address an Ordinary Meeting in accordance with the provisions of the Meeting Rules”
We are very disappointed that a matter relating to public consultation and how community concerns are dealt with is closed to public contributions.
However, you can still contact Councillors to express your support for safety improvements to support people to get around Darebin by bicycle. It’s important to contact these councillors to remind them that cyclist safety should not be ignored.
The following Councillors have voted against safe cycling projects in Darebin this term:
Councillor Lina Messina (whose Ward covers Newcastle St)
Councillor Emily Dimitriadis (who has put the rescission motion and alternative motion)
An update about the alternative motion for Your Street, Your Say Group B
Following our email and social media posts last week, Cr Emily Dimitriadis shared her motion via social media. The motion seeks to elevate priorities 7, 19, 20 and 14 to the top 4 priorities (raised pedestrian crossings near schools), removes South Crescent from the priorities list altogether. While this motion does retain safety features for Newcastle Street, it excludes the intersection at Dundas St, where council officers proposed investigating swapping the roundabout for traffic lights and installing bike lanes through the intersection.
In the meantime, tag us and Darebin Council (or Councillors directly) on social media (insta / xitter) to tell us about your experiences cycling around South Crescent or Newcastle/Dundas Street intersection!
4 January 2024: We have been alerted to a special council meeting to be held this Monday 8 January 2024, at which a rescission motion is proposed to reverse last month’s decision to support safety improvements along South Crescent in Northcote and Newcastle Street in Thornbury/South Preston.
We are calling on you to take action to support the next round of consultation to improve safety on these two local streets
Scroll down to What can we do? to see what action you can take right now or over the weekend!
A short history
Under the Your Street, Your Say program, consultation for Group B was undertaken in early 2023. After collating feedback, Council officers identified South Crescent and Newcastle Street as being areas of the highest concern
Council staff proposed a modal filter for South Crescent that would prevent cars driving the full length of the street, see above for photo of a existing modal filter in Stott Street, Thornbury
A ‘modal filter’ can safely separate cars and bicycles and work well on narrow residential streets, while also retaining on-street parking
An amendment was passed to propose removing some on-street parking along the curved section of South Crescent to allow more space for cars and bikes to travel safely in both directions near Westgarth station – and for both options to be taken to public consultation
A range of safety measures were proposed for Newcastle Street, including:
Wombat crossings at roundabouts
Speed control measures
Traffic lights with bike lanes through the Dundas Street intersection
These options should now proceed to a second round of consultation so that the community can provide feedback on the proposed safety improvements
If you want more details, you can read the reports at item 9.9 from the agenda papers for 18 December meeting, and view the minutes for item 9.9 to see the amended motion that passed by the Mayor’s casting vote
What happens if the motion is rescinded?
Rescinding the motion passed on 18 December creates an opening for an alternative motion to be put to Councillors. Such a motion has not yet been made public, and it’s unlikely the public will know what is in the motion before the meeting – it would be circulated only to Councillors prior to the meeting
Word on the street is that the essence of the alternative motion is to not make any upgrades to South Crescent or Newcastle Street
What can we do?
Write to Councillors to express your support for the next phase of consultation for Your Street, Your Say Group B.
Write to the Councillors who have been voting against safe cycling projects in Darebin this term:Councillor Lina Messina (whose Ward covers Newcastle St)
Councillor Emily Dimitriadis (who has put the rescission motion)
Submit a question (or three!) at public question time for this meeting on 8 January 2024. If you cannot attend the online meeting to ask the question yourself, it will be read out for you. Good questions to ask would be:
Is Council committed to following through on public consultation on community-backed safety improvements for South Crescent and Newcastle Street?
To date, Council has supported the community-backed safety projects proposed under Your Street Your Say for Reservoir West, Preston West and Thornbury West (Group A areas), so why is there a rescission motion on the agenda for tonight’s meeting that would ignore the community feedback for Northcote East, Fairfield West, Thornbury East and Bundoora/Macleod?
Make a submission to Monday’s special meeting to show your support for community consultation to proceed on the proposed Group B projects. You do have to attend the online meeting in order to make a submission, but you don’t have to send Council the submission ahead of time. Information about making submissions is available on the Council website. Key points to make would be:
The next phase of community consultation should proceed
The projects identified respond directly to the community’s safety concerns
Your personal experiences of using South Crescent or Newcastle Street for walking, cycling, getting kids to and from school, etc
Streets Alive Darebin will be making a submission to the Council meeting, to support further consultation so that the community can provide feedback on safety options along South Crescent and Newcastle Streets