Streets Alive Yarra offers the following feedback on various items on the agenda for the 8 September 2026 Council Meeting.
7.1 One Hour Free Parking Trial
- Streets Alive Yarra supports the Officer Recommendation (resolve to cease the trial)
- The trial has cost $1.7 million, comprising $1.45 million of revenue foregone and $0.23 million of internal costs, which is material to Yarra’s budget, but has failed to deliver increased patronage
- If Council wishes to increase the number of people regularly visiting and spending money on Bridge Road and Victoria Street, then it should upzone the walkable catchment area to either side of each of those streets to enable many more people to live nearby
- Council’s existing Parking Management Strategy doesn’t support the introduction of one hour free parking on shopping streets, and major changes to the strategy, of that nature, should be considered through the upcoming Kerbside and Parking Strategy
- As part of the upcoming strategy, we suggest that the pricing of parking on shopping streets should be demand responsive, i.e. the pricing is set at the lowest possible level that ensures a few bays are generally always available. Demand responsive pricing should deliver different pricing for each street, and for each hour of the day, based on local demand. If Swan Street is thriving in comparison with Bridge Road or Victoria Street, then pricing on Swan Street will end up being higher than on Bridge Road or Victoria Street.
7.2 Review of paid parking introduction in Victoria Park Precinct
- Streets Alive Yarra broadly supports the Officer Recommendation, i.e. paid parking should indeed be introduced to the Victoria Park precinct
- Council’s existing Parking Management Strategy explicitly supports requiring people to pay to park all-day
- We support statement in the Officer Report that 4P restrictions are ineffective owing to ‘car shuffling’
- Instead of the Officer’s recommendation of Option 1, we support Option 2, because it introduces the concept of metered parking with exemptions for local permit holders, which is key to broader parking reform across the municipality
- If Option 2 is implemented it would help show residents how carefully managed metered parking, when applied to both sides of every street in Yarra, can protect local streets from being swamped by commuters
7.3 Transport Action Plan
- We oppose the Officer Recommendation because Item 1 (retire the Transport Action Plan) and Item 2 (prioritise safety) are contradictory; the Transport Action Plan itself is focussed on delivering improvements to safety
- The ‘background’ section of the Officer Report is fundamentally incorrect in claiming that ‘Council faces multiple competing priorities of equal importance’; the reality is that most people agree that safety is more important than traffic speed or traffic volume
- If Council wishes to support ‘safety’ then it should continue to support the adopted Transport Action Plan, including the implementation of modal filters and modal shift, because they are the best ways to improve safety, as shown by the ‘Hierarchy of Controls’
8.2 Yarra Streets
- Streets Alive Yarra supports the motion
- 30 km/h is important to improve safety on our local streets
8.3 Management of major construction projects
- Streets Alive Yarra supports the motion
- Our streets should be carefully managed to ensure safe access to all properties for people of all ages and abilities, irrespective of whether they choose to walk, bike, take public transport, or drive, and irrespective of whether major construction projects are underway
- We suggest that the report should be made public, instead of restricting it to a Councillor Workshop
8.4 Better Bus Services
- Streets Alive Yarra supports the motion
- Better public transport, including better bus services, are key to a functioning city
- We support the extension of the 603 bus route from Burnley Station to Victoria Gardens Shopping Centre
8.6 Governance, transparency and democracy around planning applications
- Streets Alive Yarra opposes the motion
- Section 1 of the motion is fundamentally incorrect because the Development Facilitation Program delivers a clear commensurate community benefit, which is more housing in the midst of a housing crisis
- In addition, Yarra is better placed than other Local Government Areas to support population growth because:
- it’s close to a wide range of jobs, services, and community facilities
- it is well placed to raise tens of millions of dollars of additional revenue (by charging commuters a reasonable fee to park all day) that can be invested in community infrastructure to support a growing population
- The state government introduced the Development Facilitation Program because councils, including Yarra, were blocking housing during a housing crisis
- If council prefers to manage planning applications itself, without being bypassed by the state, then it should demonstrate a responsible approach to housing by upzoning across Yarra to legalise the construction of financially viable developments, following the lead of New South Wales
8.7 Community Engagement
- Streets Alive Yarra supports the motion
- Trust in community engagement is important for trust in governance
- We suggest that Your Say Yarra should offer an option for accounts to be validated, i.e. linked to names and addresses on the Victorian Electoral Roll
- Feedback from Your Say Yarra engagements can be presented to show the responses from validated accounts, non-validated accounts, or both
- We suggest that Council could offer residents the ability to use one account for all council services, including Your Say Yarra, paying rates, paying for permits, booking a meeting room, booking a hard waste collection, or logging into the library
8.8 Mater Street Pocket Park Design
- Streets Alive Yarra opposes the motion
- The design is appropriate for the area and should proceed
