Despite ongoing and overwhelming rejection by many residents over the past few years, the City of Port Phillip is again seeking to introduce new bike lanes in your local streets and reduce speed limits – cloaked as a “Safe Travel Strategy.” Residents of Port Phillip will be hosting a meeting to inform local residents and gather community feedback on the council’s proposal. Deputy Mayor Mears, Councillors Hardy and Jay have been invited to attend this meeting to hear your thoughts and engage with you more broadly. We therefore invite you to participate in this meeting on Monday 18 May – read on for more details.

Councillors will vote on Wednesday 6^th May to finally change local laws to improve community safety. If you are concerned about community safety, you must speak in support of the motion at the Council Meeting at 6:30 pm on Wednesday 6^th May. You may have already advocated to support these changes and be frustrated by the process and several rounds of community consultation starting in February 2024. The outcome of the vote is important for residents who have been the victims of verbal abuse, physically assaults and feel unsafe on our streets. Changes to the local laws seek to address abusive and antisocial behaviours arising from street encampments that threaten community safety and deter customers from cafes, restaurants and retail businesses. Read on to learn how to register to have your say on 6 May.

Just over 12 months ago, the Round Table was established to look into community safety in response to a growing dissatisfaction within the community. The initial hype over the Round Table with all of its political atmospherics on display by some of the Councillors led to heightened expectations well beyond what could be realistically achieved. 12 months on with no increase in resourcing to the police, camping laws still under consultation and poor coordination among the stakeholders, the situation is no better and by all accounts antidotally worse. Read on to explore five case studies that lay out precisely what this steady erosion in community safety means for residents in Port Phillip.

It is pleasing that Councillors voted unanimously on 22 April 2026 for Deputy Mayor Bryan Mears’s motion that acknowledges community concern about non-compliant and modified private e-bikes, e-scooters and e-moto bikes, unsafe riding behaviour and the need for effective deterrence and enforcement and unsafe battery charging and storage. Read on to learn more about the concrete plans to improve these emerging safety issues and how other states are grappling with the same issues.