Despite clear opposition from the Merlynston community, Moreland City Council are progressing with plans to sign over 90% of Hosken Reserve to private sporting clubs and lock locals out.
Can you sign our petition, to help us get a fairer community outcome for Hosken Reserve?
This new petition, is a Legislative Assembly petition sponsored by the Victorian Shadow Minister for local government, who will speak to it in Parliament.
It seeks a better outcome for our community and Hosken Reserve, and to hold Moreland City Council to account for their many failures in this 18-month saga.
But didn’t we already win this campaign?
We’ve had some massive wins in this campaign, but we are still battling for fair community access to Hosken Reserve.
Thanks to your help signing this petition back in September 2020, we got the synthetic pitch project paused, convinced the State Government to revoke their grant (due to lack of consultation) and finally got Moreland City Council to do what they should have done in the first place: consult with their community.
However, the consultation was disappointing, to say the least. Our community's needs were pretty clear! But the final Masterplan ignored our needs, and dedicated more than 90% of Hosken Reserve to sporting use, effectively locking out the community outside of business hours.
Can you help us get the word out, by asking 5 (or 10!) of your friends or family to sign the petition?
What’s the problem with the final Masterplan?
We strongly feel that Council’s consultation was not genuine or balanced, and the outcome unfairly favours the interests of private sporting clubs over the community.
The final Masterplan:
- unfairly favours the interests of a single private sporting clubs over the resident community
- dedicates more than 90% of Hosken Reserve to sporting use, effectively locking out the community from using the park outside of business hours
- does not recognise the park as being a local park, a designated off-lead dog park with an ever-growing local resident population of informal users
- the cost for the soccer components have more than doubled with two maximum sized Premier level pitches planned, to service double header Premier NPL games on Hosken North and South with a third warm-up pitch in a usually quiet residential area unsuited for such events.
Based on Council’s own reports, 70% of those who voted in the final community engagement on the proposed design were NOT residents of Moreland. We are outraged by the lack of meaningful consultation, potential undeclared conflicts of interest, misuse of ratepayer assets and funds, and, should the project go ahead, it will mean a significant loss of benefit to local residents.
So, this is it folks: We just need you to please sign and share, share, share!!!
For updates on this phase of the campaign please like our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/savehoskenreserve
Yours in hope,
Emma from the Save Hosken Reserve campaign