Frankston City Council advocates for best community outcomes
Published on 31 May 2021
Frankston City Council has successfully advocated for six key motions at the Municipal Association of Victoria’s recent State Council Meeting.
The adopted motions related to:
- The establishment of a National Integrity Commission.
- A review of Native Vegetation Offset requirements.
- Introduction of legislation to create an offence for spectators or other people to attend a hoon event.
- Major road lighting upgrades.
- Training requirements and tests for boat a licence.
- Improved funding to support marine search and rescue volunteers.
Mayor Kris Bolam said the adopted motions demonstrate Council’s commitment to doing everything possible to help Frankston City achieve its vision and aspirations as a vibrant place to live, work, study and enjoy now and into the future.
“Council-led advocacy to State and Federal Governments is a vital tool for building awareness and support for matters that impact our city and to help to secure the funding needed to drive change and deliver community benefit.
“A key way for Frankston City to drive change is to build strong relationships not only with decision makers but also our local, regional and industry communities. By collaborating with Victorian councils on these common objectives, we strengthen our ability to influence change,” Mayor Bolam said.
National Integrity Commission motion: Calls for the establishment of a unified approach to integrity bodies and the establishment of a National Integrity Commission to provide integrity review over all three tiers of government.
Mayor Bolam said it was critical that integrity underpinned all levels of government and that the present approach to integrity bodies between the Commonwealth, State and Local Governments was varied and disjointed.
Native Vegetation Offset motion: Advocate to State Government to review the Native Vegetation Offset requirements to make it more feasible for both councils and private property owners to establish offset sites on their land, particularly with regards to revegetation.
The Mayor said native vegetation offsets and other compensatory revegetation for the removal of vegetation is governed by State and Local Government through relevant planning schemes.
He noted that during the development of the Frankston Native Vegetation Offset business case it became clear how limiting and convoluted the current criteria was.
Hoon events motion: The MAV advocates to the State Government for the introduction of legislation to create an offence for spectators or other people to attend a hoon event.
Mayor Bolam said Local Laws are relevant to individual council areas and that while Police are authorised to enforce them, it remains a local effort.
“Transient offenders often move to neighbouring areas to avoid penalties or punishment. This motion seeks to ensure a consistent enforcement approach is taken to control hoon activity across the state,” Mayor Bolam said.
Road lighting upgrades motion: Calls on the Victorian Government to allocate $60 million over three years, to enable remaining non-LED cost-shared street lights on declared arterials and major roads to be upgraded to LED.
The motion also calls on the Victorian and Australian Governments to deliver a $100 million dedicated grants program to cover up to 50 per cent of Local Government costs over three years to support Victorian councils to undertake business cases and implement LED energy efficiency upgrades to remaining non-LED street lights on both major roads and minor roads.
The motion requests that the MAV advocates for a further $50 million to be allocated to implement smart lighting for major roads, noting this action could save $430 million in operating costs and reduce emissions by 1.79 million tons over the next 20 years.
Training requirements and tests for boat licence motion: Calls on the MAV to advocate to the Victorian Government to legislate and implement a training and practical test, along with ability to swim requirement to acquire a boat licence.
Council CEO Phil Cantillon said Victorians have a strong interest in water based activities including the use of a range of powered water craft and vessels.
“The recent spike in water related deaths highlights the need for a greater awareness of water safety in the general population and an increase in the minimum capability to operate water craft specifically. The lack of basic knowledge has been disquieting.
“A practical training component, including the ability to swim, will achieve a reduction in the number of water related emergency incidents and ease the extreme pressure faced by our statutory and volunteer emergency services. Queensland and Western Australia already implemented similar requirements with great success,” Mr Cantillon said.
Improved funding to support marine search and rescue volunteers motion: Calls on the MAV to advocate to the Victorian Government to provide additional funding to councils with coastlines and their affiliated Not For Profits, such as Coastguard and lifesaving clubs, to improve sustainability of volunteering for marine search and rescue and their safety and lifesaving capacity for the benefit of all communities.
Mr Cantillon said: “Frankston is one of a number of councils with foreshores catering for broad visitation for recreation and leisure. Frankston’s foreshore has a population catchment in excess of 800,000 people.
“This past year we have seen a significant increase in the number of water related incidents and deaths. It should be noted that the Frankston Coastguard and lifesaving clubs alone respond to over 200 incidents per year.
“It is vital that these essential volunteer services are provided sufficient funding to attract and train volunteers and to operate safely to the expected standards,” Mr Cantillon said.
The State Council is the MAV’s governing body. It is made up of representatives from member Councils. For more information, please visit https://www.mav.asn.au/
Mayor Bolam and 11 other regional Councillors were recently elected to the Board of the MAV. He represents the metropolitan southern region (Casey, Greater Dandenong, Monash and Frankston) in his role on the MAV Board.
For more information about Council’s commitment to advocating to the State and Federal Governments on behalf of residents, please visit https://www.frankston.vic.gov.au/Your_Council/Advocacy