Tuesday, 2 May 2023

 Katie HALL (Footscray) (15:47): The residents of Footscray have spoken loudly and clearly that they want more respect from the people who own large landholdings in central Footscray. Little Saigon burnt down in 2016, and it is still burnt down. Forges closed in 2008, the empty Paint Spot building on Buckley Street, the demolition of the historic Belgravia hotel – Footscray has been let down. I recently took my campaign on land banking to the Minister for Planning Sonya Kilkenny and was pleased to take her on a walking tour of Footscray. At Joseph Road I showed her what happened when Matthew Guy approved buildings with no setbacks off the roads and where we had to introduce retrospective planning controls to get contributions from developers. We now have to retrofit infrastructure into this development, and I am pleased to inform residents that their park on Warde Street, funded by the Andrews Labor government, will commence construction in June. In our walk-through of Footscray we were joined by mayor Sarah Carter and the CEO of the council to discuss planning laws and actions that can be taken, and I understand that the mayor is now meeting with owners of these sites. I am excited that an election commitment I secured for artworks for Footscray will be delivered to tackle graffiti problems, but it is important to acknowledge the graffiti problem is made worse by the negligence shown to our community by the owners of these bombsites. I will continue to update the community on this campaign.