Parks as commercial enterprises
Published 12 months ago in Where I Live.Over the past month commercial and corporate groups have ‘invaded’ Glen Eira parks in great numbers. All of this is, of course, money for jam. The hiring of ‘open space’, ‘rotundas’, barbecues, has become a nice little revenue raising enterprise. There’s nothing wrong with people coming to parks, enjoying themselves, and partaking of sunshine, pleasant settings, etc. What is highly questionable however is how does this impact on the local community? The mums and dads and kids, who simply want to spend a few hours over a barby only to find that it has been ‘booked’ out for the whole day and that they have to combat hundreds and hundreds of others for a spot to lay down a blanket, or grab a piece of shade. This is no exaggeration – the ‘roll call’ for one single park includes the following – Commonwealth Bank (100 people and on another occasion 60 people; Australian Pacific Touring – 100 people; Sandringham Sports Medicine – 40 people). The list goes on and on.
The question again remains – is this council putting corporate interests (and their money) before the interests of the local residents whose rates already pay for such facilities as barbecues, rotundas, and maintenance? What has happened to equal opportunity and equity – or is it all about ‘user pays’ and to hell with those who can’t afford it, or those who refuse to ‘book’ a facility on principle?
Given that our parks now play host to hundreds of people at a time, I wonder what the health regulations are in terms of council providing adequate toilet facilities? If they are raking in the money, then surely it is not too much to expect that adequate drinking fountains, toilets, seats, are also in evidence? Oh, and finally, there is the issue of ‘protecting the grass’ from the stampeding feet of hundreds of people!!
3 Responses to “Parks as commercial enterprises”
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Sorry, but I expect that the council is hiring the park to enable upkeep costs to be maintained without either increasing rates by an extra amount for park maintenance, or selling off other smaller parks to cover costs. Be happy at the moment that you have parks, because as Melbourne grows ( 60,000 / year ) and the the state government needs to pack more people into the existing area, I can see many parks being converted for housing.
Hey Grant - before we all accept your Orwellian vision viz parks, why is it that the greater Melbourne area has a green wedge policy? Given your view surely that should be earmarked for housing too?
Are you a pessimist or a Council stooge?
But you have a point re upkeep costs - those silly singing toilets (where one person can pee at a time, and then it closes itself for 10 minutes) need daily mainenance by a real live human person.
Personally I would prefer a loo that catered for a couple of people at a time that was manully cleaned daily, than a loo that can only accomodate 1 visitor, regularly traps young children, closes itself for periods of time for ‘cleaning’, and costs near $100k to install and STILL needs a daily clean by a live human…
I want to see a cost/benefit report!
Grant,
your thesis might have merit, except for the fact that council rates will continue going up each year given:
1. staff ‘enterprise agreements’ which guarantee them about 4.5% pa.
2. The ridiculous waste of money in building pavilions that are multi-million dollar investments in order to reap more money
3. The ‘re-development’ of major streets that were in perfect order and costs 2.94 million without real indication to traders of how this will disrupt their businesses, or what the public thinks of the new aesthetics. I’ve not yet met one person who likes Centre Road’s ‘new look’ and everyone thinks it’s a waste of money.
4. Finally, if council is so concerned about ‘preserving’ open space, then why have they agreed to sell off to developers four lots which have been earmarked to be an extension of an existing park for years?
The bottom line as canineclub states is that charging park users for something they have already paid for is merely the ‘cream on the top’ - easy pickings. Also what should be noted is that some of the companies who have ‘booked’ these facilities aren’t even in the municipality of Glen Eira! We therefore have the situation where ‘outsiders’ pay money to a rapacious council to use local facilities which deny access to those who have already paid for those facilities and therefore deserve ‘first options’ as it were.This has nothing to do with ‘upkeep’ - it is simply another example of greed! Soon we will be charged for the very air we breathe.