All ears at listening post

Everything on the agenda at community consultation event

TO anyone else at the Crook Street dog park last Saturday, it may have seemed odd that Karen and Rob Sheehan arrived with no leash, ball or four-legged friend in sight.

The retired couple recently relocated from outer Melbourne, leaving their children and large property behind in the big city to set up a new, downsized life in Bendigo.

But roadblock after roadblock to build their new home on a plot of land in the city’s east led them to the unlikely dog park location to seek help from Eppalock Ward councillors Matthew Evans, Margaret O’Rourke and Greg Penna at a listening post.

“The land should’ve been titled back in 2020 and 12 months has gone past now, and it still hasn’t been titled,” Ms Sheehan said.

“We’ve paid a deposit to, and signed a contract with, a builder. That was back in January, and they can’t keep holding that price for the house forever the way building costs are going up through the roof because there’s a shortage of building materials because of COVID.

“It’s just going on and on and it’s very frustrating.”

The former vet nurse said their real estate agent was now telling them a land title would be issued sometime next year.

“We’ve had all sorts of excuses. COVID has been a reason because the plumbers and contractors that the developer use, a couple of them have gone bust. We’ve heard stories that it’s Coliban Water’s fault. We’ve been in touch with Coliban Water, they say it’s the developer.

“Everyone’s just passing the buck,” she said.

That frustration led the couple to attend the listening post “to make a little bit of noise and try and get things moving”.

Cr O’Rourke said, at public engagement events like these, a “mixed bag” of requests, concerns and conversations meant an answer wasn’t always clear, and in the case of Ms and Mr Sheehan’s land title, the issue would most likely be looked into by the City’s planning department.

“It’s really difficult because it’s a developer owned subdivision so it may not be something that council can help with, but we need to understand that,” she said.

“The planning department will give us the direction and probably take it on board and give that feedback to Ms and Mr Sheehan of what might be some next steps for them.”

The City has organised listening posts for about five years now, and Cr Evans said current councillors wanted the initiative to continue.

“It’s a real sense of being proactive because we can wait for people to come and then react to issues, but we can be proactive and we might actually come across an issue organically that way,” he said.

One such issue was put forward by Dr Andrew Chan, a general practitioner getting his dog out for a Saturday morning run at the park.

The doctor, practicing locally for some 30 years, voiced his concerns to councillors about Bendigo’s population growth burdening the health care system, and the need to plan around this.

“One of my concerns is that a lot of the older generation of doctors have retired in the last year or two and these doctors have huge patient loads,” he said.

“Unfortunately, with their retirement, the people that are replacing them or are there pre-existing are all generally working part time.

“So, the problem is that a lot of patients are unable to go into these other pre-existing clinics or the new ones because they get booked out.”

Dr Chan said another example of the city’s growth affecting the health and wellbeing of residents was that more people were coming to him in need of an accessible parking permit, but the number of accessible car parks around the city was not meeting this increased demand.

“The other thing that I am concerned about, and this perhaps is a little bit of a gripe, is that it’s very hard to get into a psychologist these days,” he said.

“We are hearing of clinics of psychologists where the waiting list is 12 weeks. Repeat visits are also very, very difficult to get in.

“There’s a lot more mental health issues. This is going to create a burden on Bendigo, on the health of professionals as well as the people that are suffering.”

Cr O’Rourke said the municipality was currently in the process of drafting a managed growth strategy, which will plan for growth in residential, commercial and industrial areas over the next 30 years.

“We typically think about infrastructure for roads, water, utilities, et cetera and Dr Chan said, ‘well are you thinking about medical because as we increase in our population, people need services’,” she said.

“We’ve got a great facility in Bendigo Health, but you hear often where doctors’ books are closed because they’re busy and that’s how we got onto this conversation, so it’s an important element.”

Whipstick Ward residents can get in contact with their councillors at two upcoming listening posts, scheduled for 5 September at the Bendigo Showgrounds Market and 11 September at Woodvale Town Hall.