By Dean Hurlston

A review of inner Melbourne councils has revealed that green open space levels are their lowest since records began. It’s not just limited to inner councils and is rapidly emerging as an issue in middle suburbs too. Open green space has a direct link to mental health. 

This isn’t just a result of densification and overdevelopment but rather a neglectful and intentional problem created by local councils. 

For many years experienced local councillors have mined the databases and parent lists of local sporting clubs with precision, knowing this is the fertile ground of vote harvesting. 

What your local councillors know or quickly learn is that those on council remain on council with council investment in sporting clubs - new stadiums, pavilions, grounds, change rooms, equipment, and the like. The more they get council to invest in local sports, the more likely they will be re-elected. It’s the McDonalds happy meal effect. Toys bring demanding kids and parents wallets. In this case councillors who provide sporting facilities garner trust and votes because “they are doing it for the kids”. 

Well so they say!  

But the real victim here is the parklands, green wedges and local open space that is compromised for the ever-expanding sporting clubs. 

Amid declaring climate emergencies - killing trees becomes an inconvenient truth.  

What councils always seem to forget is that sporting users come and go. 

The local residents who use the parks and green infrastructure are the ones that lose their connection to green space. All for the sporting clubs to expand. Don’t get me wrong with our ever-expanding population the need for sports is only going to grow. This is where the systemic and intended failure of councils shows. Councils should be regionalising sporting facilities to get greater efficiency and pooling resources. 

They should be planning together. There are already groupings of councils like the infamous M9 that cover inner city councils. The best they have come up with is consistent street signage. For some reason they just can’t bear any co-investment in sporting facilities.  

In many cases councils build facilities on their municipal borders often with ample supply within 1km in the adjoining council. 

It is madness. 

It is Wasteful and terrible for the community who loses their green space. 

Where is the state government in all of this? Silent. Funding pet councils where they can harvest votes. 

The system is ultimately broken. 

Councillors are taking the community for a ride. They know open space doesn’t lose as many votes as they gain from all their sports investment. 

The local councillors who speak up against this are bullied and targeted by those who have gamed the system. 

Local government is broken. It has no oversight to stop this utter madness. 

It has no standards that prevent sporting facilities that ruin local amenity. 

All that happens is councils pit local residents against sporting clubs and create painful rifts and divisions. 

It is councillors who are dividing their communities and that is the real shame in all of this. 

The real victim is the green space that is pillaged and often destroyed. The trees, ecosystems, and serenity are ultimately concreted and desecrated. Concrete and brick sporting shrines emerge and cost a fortune to run adding huge costs to councils budget. This in turn means that older facilities get neglected and fall apart. Often eventually requiring huge investment to fix. 

Look to any council newsletter and it will be filled with building sports facilities and spruiking sports investment.

As for the trees, the parklands and open space. Despite a supposed climate emergency, they are to be bulldozed and forgotten.