Lake lighting awarded tender – City of Ballarat council meeting briefs

AFTER ongoing debate, City of Ballarat councillors awarded the contract for the Lake Wendouree and Victoria Park’s lighting installation at their regular meeting on Wednesday, 23 February.

The development will be undertaken by DeAraugo and Lea Electrical Contractors, who will oversee the installation of 225 light poles along Moneghetti Track.

The motion was passed with the support of Crs Daniel Moloney, Belinda Coates, Peter Eddy, Des Hudson, Ben Taylor and Tracey Hargreaves.

Cr Amy Johnson opposed the motion and said that although she loved the idea of lights around the lake, the current plan did not appeal to the majority of residents.

“There are people from all different parts of the community that have heard about the plan for this particular part of the lake, and don’t support it,” she said.

“I think there’s still an opportunity to potentially go back and put together a lighting design that more people in our community will actually be supportive of.”

After trialling previous lighting iterations including in-ground lights, the project is set to include of 5.5-metre poles at 20 metres apart and will cost a projected amount of over $2 million.

Growth plan gets tweak

Councillors unanimously passed a motion to amend the Ballarat Planning Scheme.

The plan outlines urban growth zones across the city’s outer regions to determine development of the city’s expansion.

The new amendment will allow municipal officers to provide a quarterly review to council to track the scheme’s development.

When asked about a timeline for the plan, CEO Evan King said amendment allowed for an opportunity to “provide transparency” to the community.

Mayor Cr Moloney said the shaping of the scheme will affect everyone in the city, and that it was “crucial” that council get it right.

“Every aspect of our future lives will have some sort of impact from this decision” he said. “The roads, the hospitals, the future schools, all that critical infrastructure cannot happen ad hoc.”

Cr Taylor suggested that at 15 lots per hectare, expansion would also need to partly include Ballarat’s already-established suburbs in order to meet the scheme’s projected growth.

Once outlined, the City will apply to the Minister of Planning for approval of the plan, which will trace the development of the urban growth zones across an expected 15-year period.

More support for libraries

Council adopted the City of Ballarat Libraries and Learning Strategy 2022-2027, which will see increased support for the municipal run facilities.

Cr Coates commended the strategy, and said the “completely free and inclusive space” that libraries offer provide an essential service for any community.

“It’s such an important area and such great benefit for the community,” she said.

“To change plans one week out on the agenda of outcomes, that doesn’t diminish the importance of how much our community love our libraries and how important they are to long-term health and wellbeing.”

Crap idea for kids

In an effort to reduce the city’s carbon footprint, a cloth nappy rebate of 50 per cent was also passed by council.

The rebate will be trialled over six months from 1 March with a maximum budget of $30,000.

With an estimate of over 5000 disposable nappies going to landfill in the course of a child’s first few years, Cr Johnson said it was “absolutely fantastic” that families will be encouraged to use reusable products.

“The cost of using cloth nappies overall will be cheaper,” she said.

“You don’t have to run off to the supermarket in the middle of the night if you’re running out, you’ll always have more at home if you’re up to date with the washing.”

Initially, the rebate would apply for purchases of up to a maximum of $100, although this was amended to a total of $50.

Bus routes challenged

The Ballarat bus network came under scrutiny, with Cr Taylor saying the current model is “not practical” and that it takes over 40 minutes to reach the CBD from Delacombe.

With the city’s last bus network review taking place back in 2017, council will be urging the State Government to look into updating the five-year-old review.

Cr Coates said the matter was “urgent and imminent” with the increasing population of the city and the strain on public transport.

A closer collaboration

Stakeholders for the Ballarat Avenue of Honour will be formed into an incorporated body that will continue to work with council on maintaining the county’s largest memorial road.

This will see the group transition the from an advisory committee into a stakeholder group.

Cr Harris thanked the committees’ efforts for shouldering part of the responsibility over 90 years, and said their work will only be improved through further collaboration with council.