31/10/2017
Peter Khalil, Federal Member for Wills, led a walk of local residents and stakeholders in Fawkner on 28th October to view the open public park space along Merri Creek which is under threat of development.
Mr Khalil has received significant amounts of feedback from the community indicating that residents do not want this land to be developed. Rather, they want to keep this as open space public park land so that future generations can enjoy the open space, flora and fauna.
“I will be making representations to state and local governments in an effort to ask them to come together to some agreement where they can contribute to preserve this land. It has been done before on the other side of the creek,” said Mr Khalil.
In December 2015, Moreland Council were advised by the current owner, VicRoads, that the land was surplus to need and offered it to Moreland Council for purchase. Despite having $40 million allocated for the purpose of “maintaining existing public open space and to create new public open spaces”, the Council declined to purchase the land.
The Fawkner Residents Association convened a meeting earlier in October to discuss the issues and consequences that the loss of the park would have on nearby ratepayers and the lifestyle of residents.