KINGSTON councillors have voted unanimously to advocate for “changes and improvements to the level crossing removal project plans for Cheltenham and Mentone”.
As part of the motion passed at the 23 April public council meeting, Kingston Council will seek “further discussion” about expanded decking areas at both stations. The successful motion stated that council would “authorise officers to negotiate for the additional decking at Cheltenham and Mentone up to a maximum financial contribution by council.” The amount of that financial contribution was kept confidential.
The council officer’s report read that “LXRP wrote to council on 12 March 2019 advising the expanded decks were outside of project scope but indicating that subject to a funding contribution from council, the structures could be delivered.”
“The delivery of expanded open spaces at the core of two major activity centres is seen as beneficial, offering growing populations more diverse open space, improved connectivity and a high level of amenity which will support economic growth and urban renewal of these centres,” the report read.
“Existing allocated funds within the forward capital plan could be used to assist council to invest in the two extended deck areas with funding in the 19/20 and 20/21 financial years.”
Council also agreed that there were a number of other “issues” with the project. The officer’s report stated that at Mentone, matters that needed to be addressed as a “matter of priority” are the “relocation of as many bus stops as is possible to the southern end of the station precinct maintaining efficient access between public transport modes, improvements to the design detail and materiality of the new station building and surrounding landscape response, provision of an off-road bike path between Cheltenham and Mentone that optimally does not require re-entry into the road network, ensuring wherever possible the centre is not subjected to the loss of publicly available car parking within the core of the centre and along the rail corridor noting the desire to enhance the positioning of the buses in relation to the station location, and maximising the retention of existing vegetation along the rail corridor between the proposed new station building and Warrigal Road.”
Cr Rosemary West said at the meeting that “residents may remember being consulted on council’s plans to put to the level crossing removal authority. Most people who made submissions or attended the meeting at council wanted more open space provided by decking over the railway trenches.”
“LXRP has come back to us and told us if we want a town square over the line at Cheltenham and if we want to expand the Mentone station gardens with decking over the line, it will cost us an amount recommended by officers in a confidential part of the agenda. Officers are recommending we pay this amount, and I agree,” she said.
The mayor Georgina Oxley said “it’s probably no secret I haven’t been a huge fan of the dealings we’ve had with the LXRA. I think we’ve been promised a number of things and a number of those things haven’t eventuated for one reason or another, whether that’s at Carrum or Cheltenham or Mentone or where any of the designs have been released.”
“While there’s been a number of good outcomes, there are a number of things that were discussed, that we did consult with residents on, that we had many discussions with the LXRA on, and I think we have been dudded in this sense,” she said.
“I think asking our ratepayers to foot the bill of what is a confidential sum at the moment, I think is unfair. I think these projects are in the broader sense not our projects, but in a local sense we have an opportunity to shape them. To ask us and our ratepayers to cover the entire cost of this is unfair.”
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 1 May 2019