Charity event runs into trouble

The April 7 Run for the Kids brought plenty of welcomed visitors to Docklands, but some residents were blindsided by unexpected inconvenience.

Mosaic resident Damian Ng told Docklands News he saw signs in surrounding streets in the lead up to the event, but didn’t realise that all roads leading out would be closed for several hours.

“The road signs said ‘restrictions’ not ‘closures’, so we assumed we’d be able to get out,” he said.

He said neither the residents nor the owners’ corporation of his building had been informed about the event.

“If we’d got a letter drop we might have been able to plan better,” he said. “We managed to find a race organiser on the Sunday so it was okay in the end.”

“But I hope they don’t do it again. They can’t just close it off,” he said. “It’s great for Docklands, but they have to plan it better.”

Race organiser Anita Blencowe claimed that all Docklands residences had been letterboxed – twice.

“We letterbox dropped the whole of Docklands twice, once is early February and again in mid-March, plus we ran geo-targeted social, on top of what Vic Traffic and Herald Sun both did,” she said.

“We have run into an issue with Victoria Harbour residents assuming it was the same closure as previous years, so that’s just something for us to manage going forward.”

But it appears many Docklands towers were not letterboxed. Strata managers confirmed that 888 and 889 Collins St were missed (but also that flyers were dropped off to 883 Collins St). It appears that Dock 5 was letterboxed.

And the complaints were not confined to Victoria Harbour.

Daryl Mead, who lives in an apartment at The District Docklands, said his complex was not letterboxed.

“The letterboxes for the apartments are in secure lobbies, accessible by the postman, so we do not get notices if not delivered by Australia Post,” Mr Mead said.

“But, regardless of notification, the whole point is that future events could be planned for less inconvenience.”

“Docklands is a tram and road ‘dead-end’ we have limited opportunities to get around these closures.”

“I would be happy to help organisers come up with a better solution.”

Mr Mead said: “My neighbour, whose wife has difficulty walking. was not able to leave by tram as all tram services were stopped.”

He said a friend at Yarra’s Edge was also unable to leave by car.

“It raises some issues of access for local residents of Docklands that, I’m sure could be overcome with some planning,” he said.

Docklands Chamber of Commerce president Johanna Maxwell said Docklands was notoriously difficult to letterbox because mailrooms were secured.

She pointed out that the event was in its infancy in Docklands and would improve.

“We’re happy to feed back to Run for the Kids to improve the event next year,” Mrs Maxwell said.