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Tuesday 8 August 2023
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Current exhibition A new exhibition is now on display at McClelland Gallery. Current features artworks by First Nations artists Gail Mabo (pictured left), Lisa Waup, and Dominic White. See story page 4. Picture: Kinfolk Imagery
People power helps save public park Brodie Cowburn brodie@baysidenews.com.au A PUBLIC park in Langwarrin has been saved from redevelopment after an intense community campaign. Plans to build a kindergarten at Langwarrin’s Long Street Reserve were scrapped at Frankston Council’s last meeting. Instead, the Langwarrin Community Centre has been chosen as
the kindergarten’s new home. Frankston councillors secretly voted to nominate Long Street Reserve as their preferred site for a new kindergarten in a behind-closed-doors meeting late last year. The unanimous vote was made public soon after, and backlash began. A petition with more than 1700 signatures was handed to Frankston Council opposing the plans. It read “Long Street Reserve isn’t only an important place for the surrounding residents but the whole of the Langwarrin communi-
ty. It is a meeting point for friends and family, a place for dogs to run around, home to many Australian native flora and wildlife. It is a safe playground accommodating for children of all ages, which is hard to find in Langwarrin.” “This proposal will transform our safe and quiet neighbourhood to a high-risk area due to the increased traffic. We, the undersigned, are the advocate for the neighbourhood, our children, nature and wildlife and we request that the Frankston City Council
stop this proposal,” the petition read. Frankston Council voted to abandon its Long Street Reserve plans last Monday, 31 July. Instead councillors chose Langwarrin Community Centre as the new site for the kinder, and also voted to begin the process of upgrading the nearby Athol Reserve. The mayor Nathan Conroy said that the Langwarrin Community Centre solution had only recently emerged, and was a “no-brainer”. “This has been going on for close
to ten years trying to pick out a site in Langwarrin,” he said. “The reason I am going to support this is because it invests in upgrading Athol Reserve, we will monitor traffic management, we avoid building on Long Street, we will save Langwarrin Community Centre first and foremost, and after ten years of investigations we are going to deliver the kinder and maternal and child health rooms that are needed for the future generations of Langwarrin.” Continued page 3