BCNA Community Dinner - 6th September

The second BCNA community dinner for 2023 is being held on the Wednesday, 6th September. BCNA members have been sent details.

If you would like to attend, please contact the Treasurer to discuss membership and dinner details.

Possible Site for new Primary School

The Victorian Government’s recent State budget announced that a new primary school will open in 2026 with places for up to 650 students in the area.

The school will open for enrolments for students in Prep to Grade 6.

There has been no announcement as to location, but an article in last week’s The Age suggested that the location could be at 509 Williamstown Road. This is land currently owned by Australia Post. However, the City of Port Phillip is also interested in the same area for open space.

The City of Port Phillip’s Housing Strategy

The City of Port Phillip (CoPP) is preparing a new housing strategy. The Victorian Government expects councils to take active steps to plan for growth over a 15-year period. The housing strategy is designed to ensure a range of housing opportunities are available across the municipality. It will also identify suitable locations for housing growth and change.

The CoPP released a Discussion Paper earlier this year. Amongst other things, this paper explained that the CoPP is the most densely populated local area in Victoria. Port Philip has a population density of 5,029 people per square km, compared to 493 people per square km in Greater Melbourne. Almost half of all households (49 per cent) are in rental properties, compared with less than a third (29 per cent) in Greater Melbourne.

When completed, the strategy is designed to guide the CoPP's action for those area that do not have planning controls such as Heritage Overlays, Design and Development Overlays or Neighbourhood Character Overlays. Housing in the Mirvac-planned estate in Beacon Cove is covered by Neighbourhood Character Guidelines and Neighbourhood Character Overlays, so is not in scope for CoPP'sstrategy. However, some nearby areas are. They are the Barak Road public housing area, the Wintringham Hostel area, and the older, non-Mirvac built, homes in the block bounded by Morley, Little Swallow and Swallow Street.

The next step is the release of a draft strategy. Community engagement is expected to occur early in 2024. Details of the project and the Discussion Paper released earlier this year are available here.