Merri-bek BUG

Merri-bek Bicycle User Group

Archive for June, 2008

Reminder: BUG meeting tonight

Don’t forget the BUG meeting tonight

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Roller Derby #6 – Friday 27 June

Brunswick Cycling Club, Fyxomatosis and Knog are proud to present round 6 of the Roller Derby at the … Brunswick Clubrooms, Friday 27th June, starting at 6:30pm. A fun social evening of handicapped roller racing kicking off at 6:30pm. Awesome prize packs to be won – $10 to race, spectators free. All proceeds will be donated to St Mary’s House of Welcome on Brunswick St. Fitzroy, which provides targeted services, including day programs, crisis response, information, referral and social support to marginalised and homeless adults.

This month also sees the introduction of the Chooka Challenge! Ride 4 laps in under a minute on a 96″ gear to add your name to the perpetual Chooka trophy, named after Daniel Ceccini Sr. who held the 4 lap record for several years. Bring your track bike with a 96″ gear (50:14) and minimum crank length 165mm.
The Brunswick clubrooms are located in Roberts Reserve, adjacent to the Brunswick outdoor velodrome, Harrison St. Brunswick (Melways 30 B5).

More info here…

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Budget submission to Moreland Council

Moreland BUG has made a budget submission to Moreland Council in an effort to have the budget allocation for cycling increased.

Check the budget submission out and come along to the BUG meeting tomorrow night for a discussion about this and the other BUG campaigns.

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Moreland City Council budget campaign – diary dates

Firstly, a huge thanks to everybody who has sent emails and helped with the Council Budget campaign so far. There’s been a constant stream of emails going through to the Councillors, meetings are underway and the local media has been good to us!

The final vote on the budget won’t take place until 21st July, and in the meantime it is crucial that the BUG keeps up the pressure. Please put the following key dates in your diary and I encourage as many people as possible to attend at least one of the Council meetings to ask questions and show support.

  1. Written submissions due by 5pm, Thurs 26th June, via post to Moreland City Council, C/- Derek Madden, Locked Bag 10, Moreland 3058
  2. Verbal submission hearings from 6pm, Wed 2nd July at the Municipal Offices, 90 Bell St, Coburg. A couple of BUG folk will be making verbal submissions and we’ve been advised that having a lot of supporters present will help our cause.
  3. Council Meeting, 7pm Wed 9th July, Fawkner Senior Citizens Centre, Jukes Rd, Fawkner. A strong show of supporters asking questions about the budget at this meeting will be very important – this is the tactic the Coburg Pool campaigners used to successfully get the pool reopened during summer.
  4. Council Meeting, 6pm Wed 21st July, Council Chamber, Civic Centre 90 Bell St, Coburg – the council will adopt the final budget at this meeting.

More info:

http://www.moreland.vic.gov.au/news/1consultationpublicnotices-fr.htm

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June Moreland BUG meeting – this Thursday

The June Moreland BUG meeting is this Thursday (26 June, 2008) night: 7.30pm at the Pascoe Vale RSL, 40 Cumberland Rd, Pascoe Vale (in the back function room).

The meeting agenda is:

  1. Welcome and intro
  2. Treasurer’s report
  3. Update on Council expenditure campaign
  4. Update on Sydney Rd/Clearways campaign
  5. Rides report
  6. Guest: Huw Mitchell, update on solar lights project
  7. Council report: Draft MITS presentation and opportunity to provide feedback
  8. Other items
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Melbourne Bicycle Account 2008 photo competition

Over the coming months, the City of Melbourne will be preparing the 2008 Melbourne Bicycle Account which will be released at Ride to Work Day in October.

This year, the City of Melbourne is asking all cycling and photography enthusiasts to send in images that represent the true character of cycling in Melbourne. The best photographs will be selected for the next edition of the City of Melbourne’s Melbourne Bicycle Account (MBA) 2008 with photo credits. All winners will receive a $100 voucher from CBD Cycles. Check out the 2007 Melbourne Bicycle Account for an example of the type of images they are looking for.

So why not combine your passion for cycling and photography to come up with a photo which shows off Melbourne’s unique bicycling culture!

Photos must be taken within the City of Melbourne municipality. All photos need to be 300dpi and of a high resolution (at least 2MB). Please send your photos with details of the street and suburb and a completed photo release form for each photo to stuart.outhred@melbourne.vic.gov.au by Monday, 1 September 2008.

See the City of Melbourne website for more information, including release forms.

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The Jun – Dec 2008 rides calendar is out!

We have a series of rides planned for June through to November.

Here is the Moreland BUG rides calendar for 2008 (in PDF format).

The dates are:

Jun 22 – Docklands Art Journey
Jul 13 – CERES to Abbotsford Convent
Aug 17 – The Bay Trail
Sep 14 – Fairfield Boathouse to Westerfolds Park
Oct 5 – Maribynong Creek trail and the Ring Road
Nov 9 – Eastern green spaces and the Dandenong Creek trail

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Docklands art journey ride – Sunday 22 June 2pm

Meet your fellow Moreland cyclists on a cruisy ride through Royal Park and down the Moonee Ponds Creek trail to Docklands. This short ride is on off-road bike paths and should be suitable for all riders and bicycle types, and all are welcome. I expect we’ll stop for a drink then return the same way.

Sunday 22 June
Distance: 15km return
Departing: 2pm (return by 4pm?)
Meet: Royal Park (Zoo) Station, on the grass on the zoo side (ride there or take your bike on the train)
Ride leaders: Ruth and Veena

ps. Mark the next ride in your diary: Sunday 13 July from CERES to the Abbotsford convent, departing 10am.

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Cycling and the council budget, an update

News from Anna Strempel (the Moreland BUG convenor):

Hi all,

At last night’s Council meeting Councillor Andrea Sharam proposed an amendment to the draft budget to increase cycling expenditure by almost $300,000 to bring it in line with the $5 per resident benchmark that Bicycle Victoria recommends.
Four councillors voted in support of the amendment (Crs Alice Pryor, Mark Higginbotham, Andrea Sharam and Jo Connellan) and four voted against (Crs Daniel De Lorenzis, Milad El Halabi, John Kavanagh and Mark O’Brien). Councillors Kathleen Matthews-Ward and Anthony Helou were absent. This left Mayor Joe Caputo with the casting vote; he abstained from voting which meant the amendment didn’t go through.

There is still a good chance to get the amendment up and get some significant $$ spent on cycling in our municipality; the budget is up for consultation over the next two weeks and during this time we need to make it really clear to those councillors who didn’t support the amendment that this is something the community wants them to do. So I’m urging you all to write letters, email or call Crs De Lorenzis, Helou,
El Halabi, Kavanagh, O’Brien and Caputo to express your opinion.

Councillor contact details are available online, including phone numbers and email addresses.

It’d be great if you could cc me to emails or let me know about any phonecalls you make or letters you send so I can keep track of the campaign.

Cheers, Anna

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Campaigning for a decent council budget allocation for cycling

Moreland City Council have released their draft budget for next year and you can see it here.

Here is an update from Paul McKay:

I have had a fair read of this and tried to save some time for others by preparing a summary of the cycling highlights below (basically council is proposing to spend 320k instead of what we and BV reckon is fair $711k – ie $5 per person of council funds). It is a long document and this was hastily prepared so it would be great if others checked my bits.

Anna has sent emails to councilors and Toby (anna and I cant make it) is hoping to be at tonight’s council meeting at

Wednesday 11 June 2008 at 7 pm
Council Chamber, Brunswick Town Hall
Corner Sydney Road & Dawson Street, Brunswick

I reckon Toby would love to see some friendly faces and bike helmets at the meeting if any others can make it.

Also the next week might be a good time to make sure your views are heard. At this point we understand that Councillor Andrea Sharman will be putting an appropriate amendment tonight and we are unclear of the position of other councilors. This is the site that has their contact details.

Here is Paul’s email with his full analysis of the budget:
paul_mckay_email_11Jun08.pdf

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