Moreland BUG

This month’s Moreland BUG meeting is scheduled for Thursday 27th August.

The BUG Committee meeting starts at 6:30pm and finishes at 7:30pm. The regular BUG meeting will start at 7:30pm and conclude at 9pm.

We will be meeting at the Edinburgh Castle Hotel, in their small room through the courtyard.

The agenda includes:

• Sydney Road bike lanes campaign
• Anstey Station update
• report back from the Bicycle Advisory Committee’s first meeting
• upcoming Annual General Meeting
• Moreland Council update
• Ride to Work Day, activities and call for volunteers

Some good news:

On 8th July the Moreland Council adopted the 2009/10 budget with the proposed $820,000 spend on cycling intact. BUG is extremely pleased to see an increased expenditure compared to last year’s reported spend of $711,000, particularly given that this increase was approved in a tough economic climate and in a budget where rate increases were reduced significantly.

I think this great outcome is testament to the strength of the ever-growing cycling community in Moreland. The BUG will be working hard to make sure the cycling spend continues to grow over the coming years, to help Moreland realise its full potential as a cycling paradise!

The breakdown of expenditure allocated specifically to cycling in the 2009-10 budget is:

- Bike Strategy $15,000
- Bike paths concrete $690,000
- Bicycle structures $30,000
- Onroads bicycle paths $85,000

Thanks and congratulations to all those who contacted Councillors during this year’s budget campaign; anyone who feels like a celebratory beer or OJ can join the crew at the July BUG meeting next Thursday (23rd July, Edinburgh Castle Hotel, Bruns from 7:30pm)

The Moreland Bicycle User Group is due to meet this Thursday 25th June 2009.

It’s been brought to my attention that this month’s BUG meeting coincides with the Council Budget submissions hearing, which will be held at Coburg Civic Centre from 6pm, Thurs 25th June.

So the committee has decided that we will not hold a formal BUG meeting this month, but that instead we will encourage as many people as possible to come along to the submissions hearing. Even if you don’t wish to speak, it’s great to have a good strong show of cyclists there – it shows councillors that there is a big and active cycling community in Moreland.

Afterwards, those who are keen can head to a nearby pub or restaurant for an informal meeting/bikechat.

If you do plan on making a verbal submission to Council on the night, make sure you register with Derek Madden of Council beforehand.

Happy winter riding,
Anna

Moreland Council will be holding a special meeting on the evening of Thursday 25th June to accept verbal submissions and comments on their draft 2009/10 budget. Come and support the increase to the budget for cycling facilities in Moreland. Put it in your diaries!

————————–
Moreland Council 2009/10 budget verbal submission:
commencing at 6 pm
on Thursday 25 June 2009
at the Municipal offices, Bell Street Coburg
————————–

For more details of the budget, check the Moreland Council website.

See you there!

Below is a list of draft agenda items for this week’s Moreland Bicycle User Group meeting. I’m just waiting on people to confirm they can speak about the various topics and whether there is anything else to add to the list. If you have any issues you would like to raise at the meeting, feel free to email me at: secretary@morelandbug.org and I will add it to the agenda. If any items that might be of particular interest arise, I’ll let everyone know.

Moreland Bicycle User Group Monthly Meeting
7:30pm – 9:30pm
Thursday 26.03.09
Edinburgh Castle Hotel, Brunswick

DRAFT AGENDA:
1. Moreland Council update – Kylie?
2. Ride leaders for April
3. Finance report
4. Super Tuesday report-back
5. Sydney Road Street Party report-back
6. Budget campaign working group update
7. Anstey Station campaign update
8. O’hea Street update
9. Other items

Links to download the Moreland Bicycle User Group’s meeting minutes for both January and February can be found below. Apologies for the late posting of it on the website!

morelandbug-meeting-minutes-090122 (.pdf, 26KB)

morelandbug-meeting-minutes-090226 (.pdf, 88KB)

The next Moreland BUG meeting will be held on Thursday 26th Feb, 7:30pm at the Edinburgh Castle Hotel, 681 Sydney Road, Brunswick (in the small room in the courtyard). Pop it in your calendar now and there will be another reminder with agenda closer to the date.

P.S. If you’ve got some free time this weekend, head down to Federation Square and check out the Sustainable Living Festival – the festival starts on Friday and carries on all weekend. Highlights include Paul Kelly on the main stage 9:30am Friday morning, and the Cycling Promotion Fund’s great big BUG marquee.

Hi all,

Sorry for the late posting, but attached is a download-able PDF (84 KB) containing both the MorelandBUG Committee and Montly Meeting Minutes for November 2008.

Cheers.

Phuong Le

Phuong and Anna are helping to organise a sustainable transport rally outside the Melbourne Town Hall this coming Tuesday 16th Dec, to welcome the new Lord Mayor to his first Council meeting and let him know that we don’t support his plan to allow cars back into Swanston St. The council meeting starts at 5:30, so the rally will begin at 5pm to make sure Mr Doyle and his fellow councillors get an ear-and-eye-full of us before they head into the meeting.

During the council meeting, some councillors are planning to put forward a motion to have a range of options canvassed for Swanston St – one of which would be reopening it to cars, while others would focus on making it a bike, pedestrian and tram friendly route. It will be important for council to know that there is a loud and proud bike community that wants sustainable transport to be front and centre in the City of Melbourne, which is the purpose of the rally.

The media will be there and Jeremy Rawlins, whose wife Carolyn was killed on Swanston St earlier this year, will address the rally. Tomorrow Anna will send through a flyer (to the BUG list) that you can email round to your networks; in the meantime, just pop the date into your diary and let Anna know if you’d like to help out – we’ll need a few people on the day to act as marshalls, making sure that the rally doesn’t venture onto the tram tracks, as well as some people to hand out flyers along major cycling routes in the lead up to Tuesday.