Frankston Council now resorting to lies and deception

 Long Street Reserve - Option 1

If you believe Frankston City Council the Building and Car Park only take up 22% of the land. Here's what they said:

When they made those comments, they certainly wen't using Option No 1 shown at the top of the page. According to a www.planning.vic.gov.au report the site is 8778 square metres. You can determine the building size by scaling the plan image against known measurements. When you do that:

• Car Park Area not including paths - 630 sq metres or 7.18%
  
• Building - 1659 sq metres or 18.9%
  
• Licensed Play areas - approximately - 2328 sq metres or 26.5%
  

It comes to a whopping 4600 sq metres or 52% of the Long Street reserve. So what exactly did they mean by 78% kept for bush kinder and public use? I guess what they really meant was another 30% used by Bush Kinder with no public access.

Long Street  Reserve Option 2

So what about Option 2? Option 2 definitely uses less area and it's footprint on the site (effective area used) is marginally less, but again it's no where near 22% with 78% remaining.

The 22% with 78% remaining is just plain misleading. But that's not the first time Frankston City Council has set out to mislead the public.

Council intent on denying openspace requirements for Langwarrin residents.

Long Street Reserve
Julia Leng Toomer

Frankston Council has decided to close the Long Street Reserve and use it for a Kindergarten and Child and Family Centre.

Has Frankston Council considered the Long Street Reserve closure properly? Have they really considered the lack of Open Space facilities that are available for residents and kids in the area?

On the surface it might seem like there is plenty of Open Space available in the area, but it turns out that other open space areas are about 1km away and usualy not suitable as kids play areas. The closest equivalent park is the Maple Street Park, about 1 km away. Lloyd street reserve is over 1 km away and is really a formal sports area, cricket, tennis, football etc. It really isn't suitable for young kids and mums. Young Kids really can't go there on their own as most of the route is along Frankston-Cranbourne Road.

Perhaps another option is the Poplar street entrance to Studio Park. Actually it's the only entrance whne the main gates to McLeland Gallery are shut. But again this isn't really suitable as a play area for young kids. The gate structure doesn't really seem that inviting to kids either. It seems as though it was more designed to deter kids from entering the area.

That leaves the Dame Elizabeth Murdoch Arboretum Playground, more than a kilometer away and marked on Google Maps as temporilarily closed.

Here is the No 1 Priority for Frankston's Health and Wellbeing priorities.

 

 I'm not sure how this fits with councils stated objectives. It seems to be more of a case of this is what we say - It's not what we do.