From Anne Horrigan-Dixon: Dear Friends and people from Protect Fitzroy North This report came out on Friday: https://www.yarracity.vic.gov.au/events/2017/09/19/council-meeting-19-september-2017. Please can you: • Email Mayor and Councillors • Call our Councillors and all the new ones • Go to the meeting and get your friends to come. Rushall Reserve is a very significant and special place to the community which uses it. It is as significant as Edinburgh Gardens is to the people who love it. It was established by the community after a significant fight with the Fitzroy Council and the State Government over 15 years. So this isn’t something we can afford to lose. Council has an Urban Forest policy coming up yet they consider destroying our community open space with its form of development. As Bill Robb says we have to argue to protect what is important to our community. And this is such a place. It went from a tip to a reserve where the critically endangered Swift Parrot has been sighted on its migration. It is a wild bushy place on the Merri which is an actual park which people can use - not a thoroughfare. So it has to be saved for our future residents. We fought for this current group of residents for 15 years to establish this park. Once the fragile escarpment has its trees removed there is no space for replanting - it is only 4 meters wide at the narrowest spot between the actual rail line and our significant tree which which will have to be removed. THIS CAN’T HAPPEN! WE NEED TO FIGHT THIS The argument is not about the need for a bike path as it will duplicate what is already there, it's about respecting and supporting the community which loves and uses it. We have supported the groups fighting developments and now we need their support. Our problem is that because we don’t have a local paper and such a big network we can’t get the information to the community - we had 4 days notice, and now two. Our opposition is the whole of the Bicycle Network - 50,000 people who are great clicktivists. We are overrun by them bigtime. PLEASE help us as we need to get get the Councillors to understand that the local community has needs outweighing a duplicate bike path. • Since the report and motion passed in 2016 there has been a big change for our North Fitzroy Community. There are 5- 6 high rise towers going to be built at the Clifton Hill triangle. Thousands of new residents wanting green spaces for recreation and dog walking, and the population will continue to increase with this spate of new developments on both sides of Merri Creek. • The community established this park and it holds special significance to the community - the same as Edinburgh Gardens does for people. They are greatly loved open green spaces. • Rushall Reserve was the first Urban Forest established in North Fitzroy and an enormous community effort went in reclaiming the degraded tip site and establishing revegetation of the park. The proposed pathway will destroy the established vegetation, significant trees and the important remnant grasses from pre-white settlement. • Since the proposal for this shared pathway in 2007 there has been substantial and significant bicycle infrastructure in this area. The Koonda Lat bridge has been built which provides significant infrastructure for cyclists. • The topography of this Merri Creek area makes straight paths difficult so a straight line through isn’t possible. • The area available for the dog walkers will be significantly reduced. The park is in fact destroyed as an expanse of open space. • The other consideration is the significant loss of habitat that will happen with the removal of the trees and vegetation. This is significant. Once the trees are removed from the escarpment they cannot be be replanted as there is no space on the escarpment. • After 3 years of asking for better signage to assist people walking and riding the Merri Creek trail nothing has happened. • Don't put in a pathway and save our trees and habitat.