What to do about White Flat Oval – City of Ballarat council meeting briefs

QUESTION time at last week’s City of Ballarat ordinary council meeting was filled with concern from residents and councillors about issues at White Flat Oval.

Rough sleepers have been using the oval and grandstand, with residents and members of local sporting clubs voicing concern about anti-social behaviour and alleged illegal activities.

Young resident Mia, who plays football at the oval, was present at the meeting and spoke about her experiences of feeling uncomfortable training at night.

“We are feeling pretty scared to just go to footy,” she said.

Municipal Director of development and growth Natalie Robertson urged residents to call 000 if needs be as this is the mechanism the City of Ballarat is legally required to use to deal with the issue.

“We are aware of the challenges at White Flat and we appreciate the frustration,” she said.

“It is really important for me to reiterate regardless that if you do witness illegal activity or anti-social behaviour you should call 000 every time because that is the process for us legally to enact legislation that allows us to put things in action.”

Cr Ben Taylor said he was concerned by the situation and that it is unfair to put the responsibility onto residents to contact the police.

“Putting it back onto the community that every time they see something the response has to be made, if that’s got to be every day, why can’t the relevant authority, responsible authority, actually act?” he said.

Director Robertson replied this was not something she could discuss publicly, but that Victoria Police have stepped up surveillance of the area.

Cr Daniel Moloney questioned why fencing the grandstand was not an option and CEO Evan King responded saying this did not work last time the City of Ballarat took that approach.

“I suppose at the moment the process has been trying to find accommodation for the people that are there,” he said.

“The people there are both living in the grandstand but also living in tents outside the grandstand so you could fence off the grandstand but that doesn’t actually mean that people who are rough sleeping there won’t continue to camp.

“There was a risk last time of people living underneath the grandstand and fires going with a great risk to the grandstand of burning down.”

Although no decisions about the oval were made, councillors will be provided with updates on the situation.

 

Call on ceremony delayed

A majority of councillors voted against a motion made by Cr Belinda Coates to move the Australia Day citizenship ceremony to different day within a three-day period of before or after 26 January.

Cr Coates said the move was a small request which is in line with the City of Ballarat’s reconciliation action plan.

“It should be incredibly straightforward considering we’ve made the biggest adjustments already and even the Federal Government have recognised that it’s not a big deal to have a citizenship ceremony on another day than January 26,” she said.

According to the City of Ballarat website, six citizenship ceremonies were held this year with participants unable to choose the date of their event.

“What we are actually weighing up with this decision is the value of a small number of people having a citizenship day on January 26, which they don’t actually know they are going to get at this point in time… and the longstanding hurt of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,” said Cr Coates.

Crs Moloney, Mark Harris and Peter Eddy supported the motion with Cr Harris saying it is important to celebrate Australia but not on January 26.

“We need to acknowledge a national day, it’s just on the wrong one,” he said. “We’ve got to do better and this is the first step.”

Mayor Cr Des Hudson as well as Crs Taylor, Belinda Hargreaves, Samantha McIntosh and Amy Johnson all voted against the motion meaning it was lost.

“I believe that we have been compromising on many things we hold on this day over a number of years,” said Cr Hudson.

“People can choose to turn up or people can choose not to turn up if they wish.”

Cr Johnson suggested it may be better to have both a ceremony on Australia Day and one within three days before or after to please everyone.

“Given there still seems to be such strong support for celebrating Australia Day on the 26th of January it would be wonderful to have the opportunity for those who would like to become citizens on Australia Day to do that,” she said.

Despite the motion being lost, a report is set to be requested at the next council meeting calling for consultation and engagement on the future activities and events of 26 January.

 

Public toilet strategy approved

The public toilet strategy 2023, which seeks to guide the future of such facilities in the City, was endorsed by all councillors.

The strategy stipulates that the region will have high quality, inclusive and accessible public toilets.

Two rounds of consultation with stakeholders and the community were conducted including direct feedback from 741 people.

“Given the complexity of the issue, the officers did take on board a range of feedback,” said Cr Moloney. “There was a lot of diverse people to consider.”

The strategy recommends that three new public toilets be built in Little Bridge Street, at the south-western corner of Lake Wendouree and at De Soza Park in Buninyong.

During question time a range of residents’ concerns with the strategy were heard, including how it will be determined what the ‘male’ and ‘female’ signage means.

Cr Hargreaves said that those aspects are complicated and may need to play out over time.

“I would like to reiterate that this is more of an infrastructure issue more than anything,” she said.

 

Art gallery plan adopted

A plan for the next five years of the Art Gallery of Ballarat was adopted by councillors last Wednesday.

The strategic plan 2023-2028 was created following internal and external consultation and used the vision, values and mission from the previous document.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the previous plan outcomes were achieved such as a governance review and appointing a new board.

“I think this plan really does encompass in itself what the galleries vision is in our community,” said Cr Eddy.

“It gives it a chance to help educate people about the collection of services that are there.”

Visitation to the gallery is currently on the rise, increasing by 84 per cent in the first six months of this year compared to the same time last year.

However, visitor numbers are still not at pre-pandemic levels.