Please see the attached PowerPoint for our key Better Places ideas.
https://betterwest.org/shared-files/325/Better-Wests-Better-Places.pptx
Author: Clare Ozolins
Spotswood Dreaming
Better West Inc invited the Mayor and HBCC staff as guests to monthly meetings in 2018 and was briefed on the Spotswood Structural Plan. They inspired us to dream of what could be and to input to the consultation on the Spotswood Structural Plan following background studies.
Armed with maps and policies provided by Council we set up a stall at the Slow Food Melbourne Farmers Market at the Spotswood Kingsville RSL in the Avenue. Each month we focused on a different area or problem – Station activity centre, Hudsons Rd, residential streets, etc. Over four months we engaged with residents and our neighbours getting comments on butchers paper. We held a stall near cafes in Hudsons Rd and patrons at the RSL continued to jot down their ideas. People were excited! There is so much potential!
Spotswood Values
- A sense of optimism, a good place to live, its gateway position to City of Melbourne
- A rich indigenous past and post-colonial industrial past – close to major activities but still with its own sense of place
- A sense that the time has come to begin restoring both the natural environment and our historic residential communities with values that promote human-scale living, a sense of place, sharing and community spirit, friendliness and connection.
Hall Street Design Campaign
The West Gate Tunnel Authority is providing the people of Spotswood in Hobsons Bay with a link to the Federation bike trail and access to a new park at the Stony Creek. This gives Hobsons Bay City Council a once in a lifetime opportunity to redesign Hall Street to create open space for community use, greening an industrial heat sink and increasing safe active transport in the city.
However, along with broken promises of community consultation, Hobsons Bay City Council is choosing a design that prioritises space for parking and gives access to trucks. HBCC’s design will create an even more dangerous intersection at Hudson Rd and will lock out opportunities for greening and community space.
We ask that Hobsons Bay City Council:
- Stop working on a Hall Street design that will endanger pedestrians and cyclists and will lock out opportunities for a better Spotswood;
- Design a Hall St streetscape for people, not for trucks and cars;
- Design a Hall St streetscape that prioritises space for tree planting, not car parking;
- Design a Streetscape for Hall Street that enhances the link to the Stony Creek and the Federation trail.
To do this, we want a design that:
- Stops trucks from using Hall Street;
- Creates a safe pedestrian plaza at Hudsons Road; and
Closes Hall Street north of Simcock Avenue to create a Community Park (as per the Hobsons Bay Open Space Strategy).
- Design a Streetscape for Hall Street that enhances the link to the Stony Creek and the Federation trail.