Merri-bek BUG

The next Moreland BUG meeting is Thursday 28 August, 2008 at 7.30pm at the Pascoe Vale RSL, 40 Cumberland Rd, Pascoe Vale.

We meet in the meeting room at the back of the RSL which you can enter through the gate in O’Hea St.

Food and drink is available and can be consumed in the meeting room.

The meeting agenda is:

1. Welcome and introduction
2. Brunswick Structure Plan
3. Clearways, Sydney Rd & MITS – what is the BUG’s preferred option for Sydney Rd?
4. Ride to Work Day
5. Council Report
6. Rides report
7. Treasurer’s report
8. Other business

If you have been lurking on the list and haven’t been to a meeting yet, you are welcome to come along. Everyone is very friendly and the meetings are usually very productive and interesting.

Tomorrow night we’ll be having an extra-short meeting at Caffe Mingo, 600 Sydney Rd Brunswick from 7:30pm; at 8:30 on the dot we’ll be crossing the road to the Edinburgh Castle Hotel for a celebratory drink or two in honour of our budget campaign win! Love to see you there, and please feel free to invite others along to share in the celebratory spirit.

Kylie Huard, Council’s new Strategic Transport Planner, will be joining us for the meeting to say hello and to outline Council’s plans for a TravelSmart/LAAP grant application.

The agenda for tomorrow night’s meeting:

1. Budget campaign
2. Moreland Station Redevelopment
3. Moreland’s TravelSmart/LAAP applications – Guest: Kylie Huard, Strategic Transport Planner at Moreland
4. Clearways/Sydney Rd campaign
5. Where to from here (a Bicycle Advisory Group perhaps?)

Don’t forget the BUG meeting tonight…

Firstly, a huge thanks to everybody who has sent emails and helped with the Council Budget campaign so far. There’s been a constant stream of emails going through to the Councillors, meetings are underway and the local media has been good to us!

The final vote on the budget won’t take place until 21st July, and in the meantime it is crucial that the BUG keeps up the pressure. Please put the following key dates in your diary and I encourage as many people as possible to attend at least one of the Council meetings to ask questions and show support.

1. Written submissions due by 5pm, Thurs 26th June, via post to Moreland City Council, C/- Derek Madden, Locked Bag 10, Moreland 3058
2. Verbal submission hearings from 6pm, Wed 2nd July at the Municipal Offices, 90 Bell St, Coburg. A couple of BUG folk will be making verbal submissions and we’ve been advised that having a lot of supporters present will help our cause.
3. Council Meeting, 7pm Wed 9th July, Fawkner Senior Citizens Centre, Jukes Rd, Fawkner. A strong show of supporters asking questions about the budget at this meeting will be very important – this is the tactic the Coburg Pool campaigners used to successfully get the pool reopened during summer.
4. Council Meeting, 6pm Wed 21st July, Council Chamber, Civic Centre 90 Bell St, Coburg – the council will adopt the final budget at this meeting.

More info:

http://www.moreland.vic.gov.au/news/1consultationpublicnotices-fr.htm

The June Moreland BUG meeting is this Thursday (26 June, 2008) night: 7.30pm at the Pascoe Vale RSL, 40 Cumberland Rd, Pascoe Vale (in the back function room).

The meeting agenda is:

1. Welcome and intro
2. Treasurer’s report
3. Update on Council expenditure campaign
4. Update on Sydney Rd/Clearways campaign
5. Rides report
6. Guest: Huw Mitchell, update on solar lights project
7. Council report: Draft MITS presentation and opportunity to provide feedback
8. Other items

There is a planning meeting tonight (Wednesday, 4 June) to work on the campaigns around:

a) the cycling component of the upcoming Moreland council budget (remember to ask your local councillor why the spend rate on cycling infrastructure in this council is so low compared to other councils; also worth asking them what their stance on cycling will be if they plan to stand for re-election at this year’s council elections), and

b) the state government’s intentions to extend clearway times on Sydney Rd (presumably as part of their visionary plans for celebrating peak oil!)

The meeting will be at 7pm at Paul McKay’s house. Contact Paul or Toby Archer for more information.

The next Moreland BUG meeting will take place at Caffe Mingo, 600 Sydney Rd, Brunswick from 7:30pm, tonight (Thursday 22nd May).

The agenda is:

1. Welcome & introductions, appoint minute taker
2. Committee report
3. Clearway extensions: Carlo Carli, state MP for Brunswick
4. Improving connectivity in Brunswick: Ian Robertson, Moreland City Council – Brunswick Structure Plan
5. Council report, including an update on the planned bike path realignment at the old VideoEzy site
6. Operating the BUG’s new Google calendar: Graeme takes us through a demo…
7. Rides calendar
8. Other business/things Anna forgot to put on agenda

Hope to see you there!

News from Nicholas Elliot at council regarding the Capital City Trail path realignment at the old VideoEzy site on Nicholson St (near the corner of Park St):

Path alignment proposed (in PDF format) – note galvanised fence on west approach to Nicholson so cyclists can use as a handrail while they wait for lights and to promote separation of path and other uses.
Also note that the existing concrete pad will have to be excavated where the bike path crosses it to account for level differences.

Cyclists exiting road crossing on west side can cycle off the path, using triangular shaped corner of existing pad, which will be re-constructed in concrete and not landscaped as symbol indicates. This and the extended handrail/fence should help with crowding in peak hours.

This alignment will be on the agenda for next BUG meeting (21 May 08). Council has decided to move ahead with construction rather than wait for the new leasee to move in and do it.
Any comments back to me via email or at Thursday’s meeting.

A quick reminder: the next Moreland BUG meeting will take place at Caffe Mingo, 600 Sydney Rd, Brunswick from 7:30pm on Thursday 22nd May.

Stay tuned for an update with the agenda…

There is a second round of meetings for the Moreland Integrated Transport Strategy review happening in early May.

Public Meeting 2 – Update on Study, Proposed Initiatives and Preliminary Strategy
Date: Thursday 1 May 2008
Time: 6:30 – 8:30pm
Venue: Coburg Town Hall (please RSVP)

Working Group Workshop 2 – Proposed Initiatives and Preliminary Strategy
Date: Monday 5 May 2008
Time: 3 – 5pm
Venue: To be advised upon RSVP

If you would like to attend, please contact Terri or Sandra on 9240 1210.
For more information, please contact Lee Dowler via
email or by phone on 9240 1265.

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