fbpx

Committee continues bid for town funding

November 14, 2018 BY

Bellarine councillors Stephanie Asher, Jim Mason and Trent Sullivan, along with members of the St Leonards Beautification Committee on a recent tour of the town.

ST Leonards Beautification Committee members have estimated it would cost about $1.7 million to carry out all their requested improvements to the town.

Committee convenor Denis O’Bryan, along with three other members, recently took the City of Greater Geelong’s Bellarine councillors Stephanie Asher, Jim Mason and Trent Sullivan on a tour of 12 stops that were of concern to community members.

The tour came after the committee inspected the town area and documented infrastructure and appearance, and then put their findings in a questionnaire to test community feeling.

The group received 90 completed questionnaires and have now progressed the questionnaire results to a rough costing stage.

Mr O’Bryan said the improvements for the town centre came to $367,000, upgrade of Bluff Road to $400,000, and new facilities for Harvey Park and pier area to $910,000.

“These are doable,” he said.

“They can be done over two or three years and the costs can be shared between council, state government and federal government.

“This is how it all works – put up the plans as proposals and money appear when the time is right from different sources.”

Mr O’Bryan said Bellarine Bayside also had plans for upgrading beach access on their side of the pier, so the beach should receive some long overdue investment soon, they hoped.

“This all coincides with Cr Mason asking us to put forward projects for St Leonards for the council budget process.

“So we will put these forward as a long overdue works in our neglected St Leonards.”

Mr O’Bryan said after the tour on October 17, council staff said they would get back to them quickly, but they had heard nothing yet.

He said in addition to the beautification work backlog, the committee was still trying to identify the key council people and other government people who make and shape St Leonards’ future.

“Our aim is to have regular get-togethers with them so we can get some coordinated planning going,” he said.

“‘We’ means traders and residents.

“For example, the council has just pulled down a toilet block in Harvey Park near the tennis courts to be replaced with portables and nobody knows what is going on.”

The St Leonards Beautification Committee is a specialist group under Geelong Ratepayers Inc.