Cycling and the council budget, an update
News from Anna Strempel (the Moreland BUG convenor):
Hi all,
At last night’s Council meeting Councillor Andrea Sharam proposed an amendment to the draft budget to increase cycling expenditure by almost $300,000 to bring it in line with the $5 per resident benchmark that Bicycle Victoria recommends.
Four councillors voted in support of the amendment (Crs Alice Pryor, Mark Higginbotham, Andrea Sharam and Jo Connellan) and four voted against (Crs Daniel De Lorenzis, Milad El Halabi, John Kavanagh and Mark O’Brien). Councillors Kathleen Matthews-Ward and Anthony Helou were absent. This left Mayor Joe Caputo with the casting vote; he abstained from voting which meant the amendment didn’t go through.
There is still a good chance to get the amendment up and get some significant $$ spent on cycling in our municipality; the budget is up for consultation over the next two weeks and during this time we need to make it really clear to those councillors who didn’t support the amendment that this is something the community wants them to do. So I’m urging you all to write letters, email or call Crs De Lorenzis, Helou,
El Halabi, Kavanagh, O’Brien and Caputo to express your opinion.
Councillor contact details are available online, including phone numbers and email addresses.
It’d be great if you could cc me to emails or let me know about any phonecalls you make or letters you send so I can keep track of the campaign.
Cheers, Anna
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