At Tuesday night’s
meeting of city councillors the QVM Draft Master Plan was being considered and
a presentation by one of our traders was commended by a number of councillors
including the Lord Mayor.
Cathy Underhill’s
presentation was described as informative and concise. Presenters are allowed
just 3 minutes to get across their views and here is the text from Cathy’s
written submission to Council. Her verbal presentation varied slightly from the
text shown here -
Lord Mayor, Councillors
and stakeholders.
On behalf of the traders
I would like to thank you for your commitment to the QVM. We welcome the idea of green space,
sustainability, childcare and community space.
We welcome better toilets, traffic flow, storage. All of it.Getting there is a little scary
though
We need to be very
careful that in a rush to renew the market we don’t forget the things that make
the market work, that our desire for order doesn’t sterilize the unlikely
synergies developed through the years. Why is there a take away next to a tea
shop. I don’t know. Why is there a remaindered goods stall in the
fruit sheds - Who knows, but I bet that each of these businesses profits by
their location.A phrase that pops up repeatedly in the plan is “finalise the
retail mix”. We need to make sure logic
doesn’t kill the kismet.
“Support emerging
businesses” is a primary strategic direction. That is a far more complex than
it seems. How do you do that? Multi-location, formulaic businesses have no
place in the market. Their economies of
scale kill competition.Ensuring that the market remains a home to family and
micro business requires policy.
There is an inherent danger in trying to force change. Prahran Market trade dropped 30% after the
renovation and still hasn’t recovered according to traders. Docklands and South Wharf show that if you
build it they might not come. We must be
careful that our change is an evolution and not a tsunami.
In the lead up to the
renewal don’t ignore the market. We
need to gain customers before we torture them with construction. The worst thing we could do at this point
would be to halt expenditure. QVM need
to start doing the smaller easier projects.
Market apps, interactive information booths, Trial different methods of
weather protection, or opening hours.Beautify the street fronts. And please,
can we start looking at heritage colours differently and get away from those
slightly diarrhoea tinged colours as a baseline. Think France and their markets...
Looking at the Capire
report questions on parking it appears that traders think parking is far more
important than customers, but when you dig a little the customer response is
more nuanced.It is quite possible that all the people who said improved pedestrian
amenity was important also said improved car parking was important. The respondents were not limited to one
answer and the difference was 38 responses. More importantly the people who
were not at the market did not have a voice.
The customers already lost due to
high car parking costs and the incremental loss of street parking. Eventually the city of Melbourne will be
virtually car free but we are a long way from that yet. Our customer base is continually dribbling
away because of difficulties in parking.
We need real constructive help with this now.
Finally, I ask Council
and the Board to examine how they view the market and measure success. Is the market a purely financial asset?If you
judge it by increases in revenue it will fail.
Judge it by the success of the micro businesses and start ups. Judge it by the variety of people who feel
ownership – rich, poor, immigrant, 6th generation, tourist or
local. Judge it by it’s diversity. We hold in in trust. We don’t own it.
Cathy is a QVM Dairy Hall Representative from McIver's Coffee & Tea Merchants.
Have Your Say - click here.
COMMENTS:
14/06/2015 10:18:14 Presentation! "Cathy Underhill you said it sooo succinctly I hope in earnest they adhere to what u say on behalf of the traders."
