Hi all, in preparation for the yet to be confirmed council meeting (although they are confident it will be Wed 26th Apr), thought i'd just share some points from council for our consideration. I'd also recommend reaching out to council if you have any queries on this process.

1. The time for the community to have their say on the Amendment was during the public exhibition process and during the Panel proceedings.

2. The timing of the final report on Amendment C172 to Council is still to be confirmed, but they are aiming for the report to be presented to the City Development Delegated Committee on Wednesday 26 April. All affected residents will have the opportunity to speak to the Councillors on the night.

3. You can request to be heard on the matter at the relevant City Development Delegated Committee meeting.  The process is outlined in Maribyrnong City Council Governance Rules 2021. The rules state that members of the public will be afforded the opportunity to present their views on items listed on an agenda for consideration at Delegated Committee meetings. When I spoke with a council officer today, the Request to be Heard is the opportunity to express an opinion / statement only, no questions to be asked. There is a separate form and process for questions.

4. A maximum of three minutes per speaker will be allocated prior to the Committee’s consideration of items. Where more than 10 requests to present to Special Committees are received, a spokesperson will be appointed by the group, and allocated a maximum of five minutes. Councillors are permitted to ask questions of those addressing the Committee.  The request to be heard form can be found on Council’s website.  As previously advised, submitters will be informed of the date of the CDDC meeting.

My thoughts on this, if point 4 is what it is, it may be more effective to have 10 speakers at 3 mins each (30mins all up), as opposed to just 1 speaker for 5mins... but that's just my thinking. As an example, if we have say 15 people that have registered to be heard, we'd have to organise amongst ourselves to have 2 people to represent, eg. 1 person for the 1st group of 10, a 2nd person for the remaining 5. We'd also have to ensure that we don't repeat our views, etc..., that's why the council prefers to group - up where it makes sense.

5. The primary purpose of the Council meeting is for Councillors to consider the Panel report and to decide how they wish to proceed with the Amendment.

6. All submitters will have the opportunity to address Councillors prior to them making a decision. Council (Councillors) must take into account the views of submitters and the recommendations of the Panel when making its decision.

7. Councillors would not have made a decision prior to hearing from the community. Council officers will have provided a recommendation, but it will be up to the Councillors on how they wish to proceed with the Amendment.

Again, we have the private Facebook group setup to discuss other items, but thought I'd post this to get ready for the final step in this long process. Hope it's helpful.

Vas