\u201cA win for the people\u201d is how local residents have described a decision by Ararat Rural City to dump plans to sell a popular park.<\/p>\n
After a period of community consultation, councillors decided on Tuesday night to retain ownership of the green space which fronts onto View Point and Banfield Streets.<\/p>\n
The issue first surfaced at June\u2019s council meeting where councillors were asked to consider the development of the small parcel of council-owned land.<\/p>\n
Following that meeting, the decision was made to seek community input.<\/p>\n
A massive 155 submissions were received from community members.<\/p>\n
The submissions covered a wide range of perspectives and information, including how the land is currently used, its history, and comments on the possible future uses and considerations for the different usage options.<\/p>\n
This week, councillors were asked to defer any decision until after October\u2019s election, but they went a step further voting to keep the park in public hands.<\/p>\n
Cr Jo Armstrong highlighted the significance of the community\u2019s feedback on the matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have had an overwhelming indication from the community that the proposed sale of this land is not desired by the community and by the neighbourhood,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that as the group of councillors, as we stand today\u2026 we are responsible to make a decision in this Council term.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur community has very clearly indicated [that this land] is important to them to keep as open space.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cr Gwenda Allgood also emphasised the significance of the park to the local community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis park is valued by our people, by our families, and by our children. It\u2019s really important that as a council we listen to the people, and tonight we have listened,\u201d Cr Allgood said.<\/p>\n
The campaign against the sale of the park was led by former Mayor Bill Jones, who said this week\u2019s decision was a vote for common sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a good decision although there was a little hint (at the meeting) it is for the time being. We need to continue watching it very carefully,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Jones said with housing blocks getting smaller and smaller, public space is invaluable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe closer council allows development, the smaller the blocks become, the more important these spaces are. There is no play space for children and young people in a lot of these modern allotments and we need these spaces,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Jones said it was important for people to keep an eye on council\u2019s website to spot future developments and plans and take action where necessary.<\/p>\n
Ararat Rural City Council has extended its thanks to the community for their thoughts and input on the future of the park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cA win for the people\u201d is how local residents have described a decision by Ararat Rural City to dump plans to sell a popular park. After a period of community consultation, councillors decided on Tuesday night to retain ownership of the green space which fronts onto View Point and Banfield Streets. The issue first surfaced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[31],"class_list":["post-2465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/IMG_4521-Copy-2-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-DL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2465"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}