Greetings everybody

Sorry there was no column in October due to being in hospital with a leg infection. But now back in action and good to be back.

Short stays/serviced apartments

Watergate is pressing ahead with its appeal to the Supreme Court with the hearing scheduled for November 11. The appeal is against the VCAT member’s decision to allow short stays. Watergate obtained the required majority vote by residents to enable it to proceed with the appeal.

I attended a follow-up meeting with department officers to review our position on short stays. I repeated our position of requiring a minimum period of seven days stays which, whilst significantly less  than overseas minimums, would allow family holidays and business short trips whilst banning weekend parties. We believe this to be reasonable whilst, on the other hand, business interests oppose any duration ban.

Interesting to note that NSW Planning Minister Stokes has established an enquiry into the adequacy of short-term letting regulation in NSW.

Age article – poor publicity

An article in The Age on October 18 was unnecessarily harsh in its criticism of Docklands in terms of criminals living here and their activities. The article was headed ‘Ganglands, not Docklands: new high-rises harbour the gangland crowd’. The article referred to three alleged criminals living here but I think you could find three criminals living in a number of suburbs.

Notwithstanding, I will raise the article with the police at the next Docklands PCCC (Police and Community Co-ordination Committee) meeting in December. These meetings are well attended with up to 20 representatives from various areas, including business and residential.

Railyards gone

We had some battles with the railyards people over the years in terms of noise. We had a number of meetings with their representatives and were able to obtain conciliatory outcomes on a number of issues which we appreciated. Now they’re gone and silence reigns from there except for clean-up works like track removal. Of course this will be superseded by E-Gate development which will get under way in due course.

Better Apartments

I attended a meeting in October on behalf of the DCA with an officer of the planning department and two town planners to establish our views on better apartments with reference to interior design. I suggested that matters included larger rooms, higher ceilings, air conditioning, better construction materials and adequate lifts.

I suggested, however, that it is difficult to separate the interior from the exterior. When asked why we bought our apartment I said it was a combination of the interior newness and layout and the exterior views, closeness to the city and public transport. The exterior brings in a number of other issues including space between buildings, sunlight, public open space and wind tunnel effects. I suggested the interior and exterior should be considered in conjunction.

Events

We seem to be getting more varied public events in Docklands. At Etihad Stadium we had the speedway championships on October 24 and the cage-fighting on November 15. I notice that the police have stated they will refuse entry to underworld figures and bikies for the cage-fighting. These events will be followed by an AC/DC concert in December and the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in February.

Additionally a fund raising overnight bicycle ride will take place in January from Harbour Esplanade.

There is certainly no shortage of events.

If any reader would like to become a member of the DCA or has any suggestions they wish to put forward regarding activities or issues, they are welcome to contact us on

[email protected]. We’re also on Facebook.

If you would like to contact me about any aspect or becoming a committee member you are welcome to email as above.

Regards to all
Roger Gardner
President DCA