SLIDE 4 4
Private Development not suitable
World Heritage Gardens appropriated for exclusive use and benefit of commercial business enterprise,
- Victoria’s only World Heritage site should be open to public every day.
Large commercial event should be in purpose built event venue
- gardens not suited for MIFGS,
- needs facilities, infrastructure, vehicular access that supports event,
- event increasingly variety and retail with huge, heavy installations
- inadequate vehicular capacity both within gardens, REB and adjacent roads,
- heavy congestion within Gardens and surrounding roads.
- public health and safety issues in gardens,
- high risk mix of pedestrians, heavy vehicular traffic and construction
works, and
- gardens with construction materials not secure except for 14 days
- space too small and site inefficient,
- impacts on health of significant tree and gardens,
- damages lawns and trees – repair costs greater than $50,000 each year.
Alternative MIFGS venues COM has repeatedly encouraged MIFGS/IMG to change exhibitions’ siting,
- to remove landscape and hard buildings from the Gardens to open areas
around the REB,
- MIFGS refused,
- COM has recommended to MIFGS that other venues be investigated,
- renovated show grounds, Flemington and Caulfield race courses,
Melbourne Convention Centre and Yarra banks, Birrarung Marr and Federation Square,
- COM undertook to continue to sponsor MIFGS at another site.
MIFGS lack of accountability MIFGS withdrew from COM consultation and accountability mechanisms,
- did not attend Events Advisory Committee or COM committee meetings.
COM decision to not renew licence was a last resort,
- the increasing pressures of maintaining the gardens and trees were onerous,
- COM had to put the long term preservation of the Gardens and the public good
ahead of the short term commercial interests
Private Development not sustainable
Increased risk to gardens from natural pressures,
- accumulative affect of prolonged drought and water restrictions on aged and
diseased trees and degraded lawns,
- difficulties in maintaining Gardens and trees as drought takes toll,
- increases in costs of maintaining minimal conditions, and
- increases in budgets for capital improvements,
- increased risks to gardens and trees led COM to unanimously decide not to
renew the MIFGS licence. Use of public gardens for events not sustainable
- even normal use is sometimes restricted to protect degraded areas,
- events in public gardens have increased in numbers and size,
- difficult to deduce expectation of event managers,
MIFGS event is highest impact of any of Melbourne’s events Carlton Gardens are classified by COM as only suitable for low impact events,
- MIFGS use the southern gardens as a construction site,
- exhibits cover most of the gardens,
- 100,000 plus people walk over the lawns and tree root canopies over 5 day
period Problems of post event gardens’ recovery in drought conditions increase in recovery time and repair costs, and
- ngoing maintenance because repairs not effective in drought conditions.
Council policy of restricting public access and even normal use on areas that are degraded, worn and prone to damage,
- events involving heavy constructions and large numbers of people in confined
spaces no longer sustainable,
- grossly hypocritical of COM if it were to approve high impact event while
reducing or excluding public from normal use,
- bad public policy alienates government and council from electorate.
