"Submission To Council
12.08.14
I would like to outline the
consultation process to date
My name is Jenny Pyke and I am a
member of the QVMAC
We are grateful for the opportunity to speak and we are
grateful for the support the Council has shown the Queen Victoria Market and
the Queen Victoria Market traders
This is an enormous commitment from the city of Melbourne
towards the QVM, a sum of 250 million dollars has been reported in the press.
The QVM has approximately 700 small businesses who derive
their income and provide income for another estimated 2000 staff and supply millions of customers annually.
These businesses in turn support thousands of other
businesses. Many of our traders have merit awards from the Lord Mayor for
their long term commitment to the City of Melbourne's prosperity
What occurred were three single low level information
sessions with Capire during round 1
The results of the first round of
Capire were amazingly similar to the plans talked about in the Leader in 2010
and then subsequently released in the Age in April 2013
The traders were then very anxious and worried at the
low level of consultation with them and made many individual submissions
reinforcing they were against an Underground car park and the implications for the traders at the QVM.
Traders then held two large meetings totalling over 270
traders who were unanimously against the underground carpark below AB&C
Sheds.
This was reported to Capire before
the finalization of the second round at the Information Hub in F shed
In the Capire report there is no mention of the outcome of
these meetings in the subsequent report
The outcome of this meeting was also presented to the
QVM board on asking how do we get
the process back on track. No questions
were asked at the meeting or formal responses given to the QVMAC
regarding this presentation
At every stage we have asked when does real consultation
happen with the traders
At this stage the collaboration
with the traders has been minimal. The final Capire report was only verbally
released to the QVMAC
with no copies of the report forwarded to the QVMAC for formal feedback
It is difficult not to believe that the Consultation process
was carefully orchestrated
to reflect a predetermined outcome :
This is an important project and one which needs
collaboration to get the best possible outcome
At this point the traders cannot support the recommendations
of the Report."
An audio version of the council meeting can be found here (the QVM proposal starts 1:42:20 into the meeting) - http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/AboutCouncil/Meetings/CouncilMeetingAudio/FMC-meeting-12-August-2014-City-of-Melbourne.mp3