Moreland BUG

The next Moreland BUG meeting is Thursday 28 August, 2008 at 7.30pm at the Pascoe Vale RSL, 40 Cumberland Rd, Pascoe Vale.

We meet in the meeting room at the back of the RSL which you can enter through the gate in O’Hea St.

Food and drink is available and can be consumed in the meeting room.

The meeting agenda is:

1. Welcome and introduction
2. Brunswick Structure Plan
3. Clearways, Sydney Rd & MITS - what is the BUG’s preferred option for Sydney Rd?
4. Ride to Work Day
5. Council Report
6. Rides report
7. Treasurer’s report
8. Other business

If you have been lurking on the list and haven’t been to a meeting yet, you are welcome to come along. Everyone is very friendly and the meetings are usually very productive and interesting.

News from Kevin Ayrey, the Open Space Planning Landscape Architect at the City of Yarra:

From around September 1st to 30th the City of Yarra will be carrying out works to improve the shared trail between the footbridge over the creek at Rushall Station, and the East side of the High Street overpass. The works will realign the shared trail and increase the width to 3 metres, as suggested in the Merri Creek Shared Trail Review recently conducted. In particular, it will reduce the steep grades just after the footbridge heading East, and just before going under High street bridge. This will improve safety for all users, and provide a suitable sized path for future users. The area under the bridge will be slightly raised and graded to drain to eliminate the ponding that has occurred hear. The existing path will be removed and revegetated.

The works have been timed to coincide with the Clifton Rail Duplication Works, so that disruption to cycle and pedestrian traffic will be only slightly greater than is in place with current diversions. There will be times during the works when there is no access to this stretch of track. At these times alternative routes will be shown.

I have enclosed an image to give a broad idea of where these works are taking place. We will be working closely with the contractor to minimise disturbance to vegetation outside the proposed path area, and to revegetate where necessary.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any further queries.

Kevin Ayrey
Landscape Architect

Open Space Planning

City of Yarra PO Box 168 Richmond 3121

T (03) 9205 5721 F (03) 8417 6666
E Kevin.Ayrey@yarracity.vic.gov.au
W www.yarracity.vic.gov.au

Don’t forget that there is a ride leaving Flinders St Station (meet at the mosaic at Clocks TAB) at 10:05am on Sunday 17 August.

We will ride to Beacon Cove along the light rail trail then follow the bay past St Kilda. We will stop for lunch along the way then catch the train back when we have had enough.

Email Ross Millward to register interest (we will wait for you if you haven’t turned up).

Bathers optional.

Those of you who had the pleasure of meeting Huw Vellacott when he ran a bikefix stall at the BUG’s valet parking for the Sydney Rd St Party will be excited to hear that Huw’s bike workshop, Commuter Cycles, has officially opened for business. Commuter Cycles is located at 14 Prentice St, Brunswick – just near Brunswick Station – and focuses on servicing as core business. The workshop opens early and closes late to make it easy for you to drop off your bike on the way to work, grab a courtesy bike to complete your journey and pop back after hours to pick up your finely serviced steed.

Check out the website or pop in and visit Huw between 7:30am and 6:30pm weekdays.

The Main Yarra Trail between Dight’s Falls and the Collingwood Children’s Farm will be closed to pedestrians and cyclists on Wednesday July 30th, between 10am and 4pm.

Sections of the Merri Creek Trail will be closed between early August 2008 and early 2009 for works on the Clifton Hill Rail Project. For details of closures and detours see below:

Merri Creek Trail Temporary Diversions Map - pdf file

Merri Creek Trail Temporary Diversions Map - jpeg file

Here are Questions and Answers about the project + diversions

(Thanks to YarraBUG for this info).

On Monday night, Moreland City Council adopted an amended budget that includes $291,000 for additional cycling infrastructure!

Thanks to everyone who helped in the campaign, including Toby, Rod and Anna who spear-headed the BUG work, the various BUG members who assisted, Bicycle Victoria, councillors and others.

Tomorrow night we’ll be having an extra-short meeting at Caffe Mingo, 600 Sydney Rd Brunswick from 7:30pm; at 8:30 on the dot we’ll be crossing the road to the Edinburgh Castle Hotel for a celebratory drink or two in honour of our budget campaign win! Love to see you there, and please feel free to invite others along to share in the celebratory spirit.

Kylie Huard, Council’s new Strategic Transport Planner, will be joining us for the meeting to say hello and to outline Council’s plans for a TravelSmart/LAAP grant application.

The agenda for tomorrow night’s meeting:

1. Budget campaign
2. Moreland Station Redevelopment
3. Moreland’s TravelSmart/LAAP applications - Guest: Kylie Huard, Strategic Transport Planner at Moreland
4. Clearways/Sydney Rd campaign
5. Where to from here (a Bicycle Advisory Group perhaps?)

The Draft Brunswick Structure Plan is now out for consultation. The plan is the local implementation of Melbourne 2030. It sets out the long term mud map for the future of Brunswick, it details how the activity centre will develop and what needs to happen to make it a reality.

Toby Archer, from Moreland BUG, has been lucky enough to have been involved in the community steering committee. He is strongly encouraging BUG folks to get along to one of the community information sessions and make a submission to council. Its a great chance to have an impact on what our city will look like in the future. There will also be a Public Debate at the East Brunswick Club (280 Lygon St, East Brunswick) on 25 July.

For more info go to:
http://www.moreland.vic.gov.au/services/brunswickstructureplan-fr.htm