The City of Port Phillip Councillors’ vote on the proposed controversial Roadmap to Zero – Safe Travel Strategy and Action Plan (the “strategy”), previously scheduled for 17 June, has been deferred until the council meeting on the 5^th of August, reflecting the residents’ petition to have a longer period time to understand, reflect and comment on the strategy.

The strategy has raised the issues of governance and trust in council. Unsurprisingly, more than 120 concerned residents attended a community meeting on 18^th May to express their concerns and to learn more.

Nearly 600 residents also signed the petition that requested council to delay adoption of the strategy and action plan until detail is provided in relation to the location and design of new road traffic interventions across the City of Port Phillip.

Tabling of the petition lead by Adrianne Sarkosy at Council on 17^th June caused an extraordinary debate and an outburst of ‘points of order’ from councillors who falsely claimed residents speaking to the petition had made errors.

For example, one councillor sought to distance the council from the disastrous pop-up bike lanes that were constructed by the Victorian Department of Transport (DTP) and Planning. The councillor did not acknowledge that councillors approved the $4.9 million project to enable DTP to construct the pop-up infrastructure on council owned roads. Most councillors at the time in 2022 (including two current councillors) voted for the pop-up bike lanes without seeing the detailed designs. The two Residents of Port Phillip (ROPP) endorsed Councillors and one other councillor, voted against them but were not in the majority.

The Mayor, Alex Makin, spoke to the petition saying that while he supports safer roads, he acknowledged that the strategy was ambiguous and the lack of detail in the strategy document had caused anxiety and concerns. He said, “if we don’t take the time to figure this out (governance and trust) that will be a failing on us as a group.”

If the Mayor genuinely wants to build trust with residents, then it is incumbent on the councillors, via the appropriate council staff, to provide details of the traffic management interventions that will be constructed in 19 streets listed in the strategy and any additional locations seeing that the list is non-exhaustive. See previous article for list of 19 streets https://ropp.org.au/newsletter-article/community-meeting-new-bike-lanes-30-km-speed-limits/

At a minimum, council must release the:

• specific locations and design of the proposed traffic management measures; and
• expected costings and any impact on rates or other services;

prior to adopting the high-level strategy.

Alternatively, the motion to adopt the strategy must not contain any directions to delegate authority to the CEO or council officers to implement the strategy without further consultation with residents.

Importantly, residents will not be provided with any additional information (if any is to be provided) until the late on Friday 31 July – only five days prior to the council meeting and expected vote on the strategy.

It is unfortunate that council has adopted this “plough-on” approach as it undermines its already weak position given the pop-up bike lanes fiasco and further weakens residents’ trust in the governance and transparency of the council. Ultimately, council is proving to be disrespectful to residents’ valid concerns.

ROPP supports safer streets and with appropriate resident engagement across all nine wards, but council has missed an opportunity to build confidence, properly listen to residents’ concerns and build appropriate infrastructure that is supported by the community where it needs/wants it.

We will share as much information as possible ahead of the meeting on the 5^th of August to enable you to speak on an informed basis at the council meeting.