Rail gates debate closed – City of Ballarat council meeting briefs

LAST week’s City of Ballarat council meeting was an entirely online affair with councillors and officers linking in via video conference.

The agenda was comparatively light and a large chunk of the nearly 100 minute meeting was dedicated to a notice of motion from Cr Samantha McIntosh regarding the Lydiard Street railway gates which were destroyed by a VLine train in late May.

Supported by Crs Grant Tillett Jim Rinaldi, Cr McIntosh was seeking further backing to send a letter to VLine and VicTrack asking they keep council updated on the replacement of the gates, and to reinforce the heritage importance of the structures.

“The reason for writing a letter in this manner is to be very clear about council’s affirmation and establishing that heritage importance and making sure VicTrack and VLine are very aware of what our intentions are,” she said.

That wider backing was not forthcoming as mayor Cr Ben Taylor moved an alternate plan to put back Cr McIntosh’s motion until a later time, not wanting to have the City locked into one approach.

“We’ve talked tonight as the train as being the problem,” he said. “The problem is also there is some gates that are controlled not in Ballarat but by a control centre in Melbourne.

“An accent occurred with a runaway train but going through railway gates that couldn’t be opened fast enough.

“If there is another way we can provide safety in this position by keeping heritage in some way we should be investigating that option.”

The decision was deferred with only Crs McIntosh, Tillett and Rinaldi voting against Cr Taylor’s deferral.

Leaf it alone

A discussion during an update on the  Urban Forest Action Plan led to a reasonably forceful rebuke from recently installed interim-CEO Janet Dore.

A question from Cr Tillett about whether significant trees registered on private land were included in the City’s tree management and tracking software was directed at municipal officers. They didn’t have the answer during the meeting.

Deputy-mayor Cr Belinda Coates attempted address the issue before Ms Dore’s booming voice cut into the conversation and ended that portion of the discussion.

“Mr Mayor, that’s a question for the officers and clearly they’re not up with that at the moment, we’ll come back to you,” Ms Dore said.

During the first 12 months of the 20-year plan over 1400 trees were planted, mostly in Wendouree.

Grants policy updated

The City’s new grants policy received approval.

The process is an update on the 2017 system for distributing municipal money to community groups and projects through the Community Infrastructure Grants, Community Events and Festivals Grants, and the Community Impact Grants programs.

“This a better way forward, brining 11 varying different grants streams into three very clear process,” Cr Des Hudson said.

Community members had been involved in the system to evaluate and approve the old grants and Cr Hudson acknowledged their service.

“I want to commend and thank all of the external community members, business partners and others that have sat in terms of assessments of grants over many, many years,” he said.

New community input will be sought in future grant assessments for the three updated programs.