Councillor David Brand

Port Phillip is a major portion of the world’s most liveable city.  We have a lot to live up to!  Fortunately, Port Phillip has good bones. We have a city of remarkable beauty, with a history of diversity, industry and artistry. But if we want to keep it a city we can be proud of, we need a sustainable vision – who we are, where we’re coming from, and what we want the Port Phillip of the future to be.

As our city becomes more and more densely populated, it will require inventive thinking to retain its character, its distinctive neighbourhoods and complex community ambience. We will need to protect our parks, our foreshore, our streetscapes and historic buildings. As opportunities arise, we’ll need to improve them, with creativity, insight and care.  Population changes will demand more public transport, more efficient systems and very clever infrastructure. 

Above all, we need to make sure our community remains a whole community, a city that is fundamentally fair and inclusive.

getting around

Public transport is already part of the Port Phillip lifestyle and will be even more so in future.  We are at saturation point with road traffic. Catering for more cars is no answer. All our future growth will be public-transport dependent. 

Unlike the social isolation of single-passenger cars, travelling together on trams and buses is a community experience, always interesting.

Port Phillip is also a walking and cycling city. And as every trip on public transport begins and ends with a walk, we’ll need to improve our streets and lanes for better connectivity. 

public assets

From one end of the city to the other, we are united by our beautiful beachfront. As well as being a delightful part of our everyday lives, Beaconsfield Parade and the St Kilda Esplanade are famous well beyond Port Phillip.

Inland, the green swathe of Albert Park similarly unites us -- both in pleasure, and in protest.

And the heritage-laden streets of our highly distinctive neighbourhoods allow us a deep sense of history and beauty, which we all share.

ALBERT PARK + MIDDLE PARK

For all its seasonal beauty, Albert Park's calendar is still dominated by the Grand Prix -- to the exclusion of local sports and recreation through its summer months. As our city's population rises, we need a far greater diversity of shared uses.

Gasworks Park is facing a traumatic remediation -- the stress on the whole facility will need to be handled with renewed care and commitment.

The grand sweep of the beaches beneath the Beaconsfield Parade palms is perhaps our most emblematic asset. It needs constant management of its competing uses, and vigilant commitment to its physical maintenance.

ST KILDA + WEST ST KILDA

Our most prominent urban beachfront – the St Kilda Foreshore – is beginning to fray again badly.  Progress on the Triangle Site has been slow, and the secrecy-shrouded tender process for the lease of the Palais Theatre to a giant multi-national has resulted in a major blow to local culture. Significantly, the Palais has now been separated from the rest of the Triangle, with slim prospects now for any full cultural and functional reintegration.  The agreed Triangle Masterplan allows for an ambitious cultural vision, but by no means guarantees its success. 

A large part of our iconic St Kilda Esplanade panorama across the bay has been lost to poorly regulated redevelopment of the Stokehouse and St Kilda Lifesaving Club.  As a community we fought for years to protect those viewlines from over-development of the Triangle. 

In 2015, to our astonishment, Council allowed demolition of our precious micro-pier, Brookes Jetty, without objection. These have both been tragic lapses in judgement and oversight by our local representatives.

The St Kilda foreshore is poised at a crucial point. Now, more than ever, it requires vision and imagination, and an experienced hand, to guide it to a successful outcome. And the courage to reject mediocrity, to pause or even to do nothing, especially on the Triangle Crown Land, in order to preserve the opportunity for something of great beauty in the future.

We need a stronger and more responsible relationship with the State Government and its agencies, and better oversight to protect public assets in our city.

Read more

Brookes Jetty: lost on Council's watch

The Palais Theatre: was it the right decision?

an ethical city

The real estate market has a huge part in reshaping the character of Port Phillip. To keep a broad-spectrum community together as property prices continue to rise we need very clever strategies to preserve the diversity and affordability of housing. We are already leaders at the most disadvantaged end of the spectrum: the City of Port Phillip has the most innovative and productive social housing program in the State – a community asset we must nurture and build on.  

In some parts of our city, though, rampant development is failing to produce the housing we actually need. In others, new residential zones are likely to make the required diversity difficult to achieve. It is a hard equation to crack, and it will need every ounce of planning nous and good will to solve it.

Read more

Who can afford to live here?