Park scrapped, dog poo audit launched as new-look Yarra council adopts mega manifesto

A contentious new park has been scrapped, a dog poo audit has been launched, bike lanes could be removed and illegal raves along the Yarra will be tackled in a major change of direction for an inner-city council.

The City of Yarra’s new firebrand mayor, Stephen Jolly, oversaw a 36-point plan that was passed at the new-look council’s first meeting on Tuesday.

Richmond resident and children’s author Elizabeth Honey at the site of the now cancelled Charlotte Street park.Credit: Jason South

The move – supported by seven of the nine new councillors for the area that covers Collingwood, Fitzroy, Richmond and parts of Carlton – is the largest motion to come before the council in a decade and has been celebrated as a return to democracy.

However, dissenting councillors and governance agencies have criticised it as a backwards step after the motion was presented in omnibus style, covering 23 disparate issues, which allowed the issues to be voted on in one bloc rather than individually.

The motion included promises to geo-fence e-scooters off footpaths, to remove “pop-up” bike lanes and “racially discriminating” stickers, to end what Jolly called a bin apartheid that left Abbotsford residents deprived of weekly recycling and to double council meetings.

Jolly has claimed a mandate out of recent council election results in which he spearheaded a group of independents under the banner Yarra For All in a concerted effort to push out the Greens, who had dominated the previous council term.

Four Yarra For All councillors were elected, as well as two other independents not funded by the group but who voted for Jolly, who has been on the council for 20 years and was formerly a member of the Victorian Socialists, as mayor.

The vote meant immediate cancellation of a tender to build a new park outside Richmond library, a project commissioned under the previous council after community consultation.

The park proved contentious, particularly with residents of nearby Elm Grove, who complained of increased traffic in their street.

An artist’s render of the proposed pocket park in Charlotte Street, Richmond, which has been cancelled by the new council.Credit: Yarra City Council

Children’s author and Richmond resident of 51 years Elizabeth Honey was one of a handful of attendees on Tuesday who spoke in favour of the park, arguing others that had been considered controversial at the time had become beloved.

“Council, please create this park, and reinforce that feeling of community and calm. Stop the traffic so locals can tram, walk or ride there easily. Make a place for a cheerful event or to sit and have your lunch,” she said.

Honey also criticised the idea of presenting a mega motion, describing it as dictatorial.

Jolly rejected the criticism, saying it was “the most democratic motion in the history of this council”.

“We’re being accused of implementing our program at the very first meeting. That’s not dictatorship, that’s democracy,” he said.

The public gallery, which largely supported Jolly’s motion, erupted in applause a number of times during the meeting.

The two Greens councillors were the only dissenting votes against the motion, with former mayor Sophie Wade saying she was “deeply uncomfortable” with the format, which gave councillors just three minutes each to talk about the wildly different issues.

“It’s politically smart, fine. But I don’t agree that it’s evidence of a thriving democracy,” she said.

“It means you avoid scrutiny on individual decisions that, in their own right, are very important ones,” Wade said, adding the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission recommended banning such “en bloc” voting in its Operation Sandon probe.

The Victorian Local Governance Association has also flagged concerns with such voting. Chief executive Kathryn Arndt has said it was “unusual for this to occur, and particularly at the first council meeting”.

Jolly said he would not be taking governance lectures from the Greens.

“The reason we had to do this motion is because of the mess of the last council, the disgraceful mess,” he said.

Deputy Mayor Sarah McKenzie, the sole Labor councillor, flagged she was sceptical of some aspects of the mega motion and said it was wrong to lump all the issues together. However, she ultimately voted in favour of the manifesto.

Pro-housing activist group YIMBY Melbourne also hit out at the new Yarra agenda, particularly a plan to lower the thresholds for planning applications to be decided by councillors, from 15 complaints to six.

”The drastic and bizarre shift of Yarra City Council is demonstrative of how small, unaccountable local governments can quickly become unruly,” spokesman Jonathan O’Brien said.

“His first actions as mayor were to turn a park into car parking, tear up bike lanes, and give older home owners even more powers to stop new housing in their neighbourhoods.”

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