Taking Back Our Street – Acland Street St Kilda (Part 3)

A glance at the 2021/2022 CoPP annual report gives the reader a great idea of the amount of money it costs to produce a glossy annual report, and which is full of motherhood and self-serving statements. This is how the CoPP summarised St Kilda on page 39 of the Annual report:

Encompassing the suburbs of St Kilda West (east of Cowderoy Street), most of St Kilda and a small part of Elwood, the neighborhood is attractive to residents and visitors for its iconic retail strips, significant open spaces and the foreshore. St Kilda attracts millions of visitors every year, as it is home to many of Melbourne’s most famous attractions including Luna Park, the Palais Theatre and St Kilda Beach. It also hosts large events including the St Kilda Festival and Midsummer Pride March.

Reading the annual Report, you would have thought the place I call home is thriving, and if we go back 30 years it was.  The iconic streets are now known for street violence, drug and alcohol abuse and a gathering place for the homeless or idle. I was recently informed that if you add the upstairs areas of retail premises also available for rent in Acland Street, the number of vacant commercial premises is closer to 40 vacancies! 

More so, the divide of Fitzroy Street has become our very own “Berlin wall.”  On the West side, you will find streets that are prosperous, shopping centers that thrive, and landscaping and tree planting abound. Even a fountain that works! – Our side ‘The East” of Fitzroy St, St Kilda, appears not to have the same focus, access, or concentration of beautification by the CoPP. 

When you ask Councillors why they are not spending money on the renewal of urban St Kilda and especially Acland Street, they say either “we do spend money in St Kilda” (usually on the foreshore) or proffer the favourite response of “money is tight”, or “it’s not our responsibility”. 

Financial Competency or Just Squeezing the Rate payer?

The CoPP website, whether it be from their minutes, annual statements or budgets, tells a different story when it comes to the financial strength of the CoPP. The fact is, the CoPP are not clever at spending the money that they raise, primarily from ratepayers. For example, Councilors are seeking a rate rise for 2023 – 2024 irrespective of the fact that there is currently a projected operating surplus of $8.4 million in 2022/2023 and $15.5 million in 2024/2025. In 2022, the operating surplus was $26.6 million. While a surplus is good, it is not difficult to achieve, when it comes from a captive funding source, the property owners of Port Phillip, which some ideologically driven Councilors see us disrespectfully, as the local ATM.

We all would agree with a CoPP surplus at the current time over breaking even, if it was not for one quiet, rarely spoken fact. The Council has accumulated over $160 million in cash, financial assets and receivables as outlined in the 2022 Annual Report. We the ratepayers, have been treated like mugs and even more irritating, rate increases are driven from some Councilors who are not CoPP rate payers and hence have no real skin in the game anyway. A classic case of largess with other people’s hard-earned money!

Many questions follow from the Council swimming in cash and the ongoing annual rate escalation.

  • Why are rate rises even on the CoPP agenda when we have currently a substantial $160 million plus in cash, reserves, receivables and interest-bearing deposits?
  • A zero increase for 2023-2024 would still produce a financial surplus
  • Why, with the amount of surplus funds available to Council, we still have no masterplan design for Acland Street, including full-time By-laws officers for the retail strip to make a reality of the “Nirvana St Kilda” that they glowingly present in their annual report?

And if spending a small part of the $160 million in current assets and or the surplus on the restoration of Acland Street is a leap too far for some of our Councillors, then why was or is it so palatable for some of our elected representatives to champion: 

  • Over the last decade a million dollars plus on a village in Timor Leste
  • $300,000 on grants to “pop up art” with a short life span in 2021-2022
  • $300,000 on grants to musicians during covid-19 and outrageously,
  • $350,000 to the neighboring Bayside Council as a gift for an environmental study.

In regard to the Timor Leste annual payments and the substantial gift to a neighbouring Council, both expenditure items appear to go against the Local Government Act. 

8   Role of a Council - The role of a Council is to provide good governance in its municipal district for the benefit and wellbeing of the municipal community.

Both expenditures appear to be outside the mandate of Council and the other items mentioned above, appear to be “pork barreling” to Councillor sectional interests.

It’s time for Councillors to refocus on the bread-and-butter issues that build successful and prosperous communities. It's time for the CoPP to take a hard look at St Kilda and develop a consultative masterplan, starting with the once proud jewel in Victoria’s crown - Acland Street!