Ideas on improving our local area from Glen Waverley Primary School students

Council is always keen to engage further with young people in our community.  I recently enjoyed hosting all Grade 6 students from Glen Waverley Primary School at the Monash Civic Centre to explore how government works.

The visit was held in the Council Chamber and provided an opportunity for the students (spread across two different groups) to hold a mock Council meeting and debate a local issue brainstormed by the students.  As well as learning about how Council and government generally works, the students were also challenged to keep an eye out in their local area for how our local area could
be improved.  I encouraged them to email me following the visit with any ideas around how our local community can be improved and I promised that each of their ideas would be carefully considered by Council.

By the agreed deadline of 16 March 2016, 14 students took up the challenge to submit ideas to Council about improvements or changes to the local area.  The following is a summary of some of the ideas submitted:

• Allowing people older than 12 to ride on the footpaths;
• Making footpaths wider;
• Upgrading playgrounds in local parks;
• More actively reducing litter in parks and in particular, removing old chewing gum from play equipment;
• Reducing the amount of cars parking on Fairhills Parade in Glen Waverley;
• A suggestion for a new playground near Hunter Street;
• A suggestion that Council should plant fruit trees on nature strips;
• A suggestion to establish community gardens;
• Measures to reduce the incidence of gambling in the local area;
• Reducing car parking on local streets which causes cars to have to pull into the on-coming lane of traffic;
• Having a permanent security watch on people’s houses to prevent people stealing packages and to discourage thieves;
• Reducing noise during night time hours such as cars beeping and house parties;
• Installing more street lights around Glen Waverley especially behind Kingsway where major construction work is taking place;
• Seeking a solution to fallen branches, tree waste and dry leaves which have collected along a fence line in a local park;
• A suggestion for a new playground at Lakewood Reserve (note, this is in the City of Knox and Council has referred this suggestion to Knox for further consideration);
• A concern that the time allowed for parking around the library in Glen Waverley in insufficient; and
• Addressing parking congestion in Kingsway.

Whilst all of the emails received were of a high quality, the one that particularly stood out was submitted by Dulvin and included several suggestions:

1. Suggestion of a one-way sign on a service road off Springvale Road;
2. A request for Council to do more to discourage dog poo in parks and other public places;
3. A request for footpath maintenance improvements on Ainslie Drive;
4. Request for the installation of a ‘no through’ road sign at Heritage Court; and
5. Improvement in the amount of play equipment at the playspace on Ainslie Road.

Each of the emails submitted by the students has been formally responded to by Council.  For example, in response to Dulvin’s email, Council has agreed to take the following action:

• Council’s transport engineers will arrange for a one-way sign and/or additional line marking to be placed adjacent to the exit point outside 744 Ferntree Gully Road on the Ferntree Gully Road service road between Ainslie Drive and Lum Road in Wheelers Hill;
• An additional ‘no dog poo’ symbol sign has also been ordered for the Ainslie Drive playspace and will be installed within the next four weeks;
• The footpath outside 2 Ainslie Drive was inspected by Council on 10 March 2016 and the raised and cracked sections have been marked with yellow paint to highlight the defects to footpath users. Repairs will be programmed for completion in three months along with other work in the area;
• A ‘No Through Road’ sign will be installed at the intersection of Ainslie Drive and Heritage Court soon; and
• Although the Ainslie Drive playspace is not planned to be upgraded anytime soon, we did inform Dulvin that the bigger playspace at Lum Reserve has been upgraded in recent years.

Council supported my recommendation to the March 2016 Council meeting that Dulvin be awarded a $100 voucher for Chadstone Shopping Centre in recognition of the high quality letter which he sent to Council and the several good ideas he came up with for improving his neighbourhood.  This is a fitting recognition of the private time invested by Dulvin and his classmates in assisting Council to improve our local area.