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Wednesday 12 July 2023
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Call to retain free parking at Flinders FLINDERS pier is a drawcard. A place to stop and admire the view for people making a tour of the Mornington Peninsula; a place of work for commercial fishing and pilots who guide ships into Western Port; and a base for going on beach walks or from where to catch fish or go scuba diving and snorkelling. Parking is free, for now. However, Mornington Peninsula Shire has included the car park near Flinders Pier in a paid parking trial. The other two car parks included in the trial are at Schnapper Point, Mornington, and Sunnyside North Beach, Mount Eliza. Peninsula residents will be able to apply for ePermits but must obey parking time limits. Members of the successful Save Flinders Pier campaign have asked the shire to reverse its decision and drop Flinders from the paid parking trial due to start in summer.
Picture: Charles Reis
“Call to ditch paid parking at Flinders pier” Page 3
‘Satisfaction’ surveys start this week Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au THE first of the four surveys to gauge public satisfaction with the performance of Mornington Peninsula Shire Council starts this week and will be completed by the end of the month. The mayor Cr Steve Holland said quarterly surveys would provide the shire with “more timely feedback”. Results of the four surveys commissioned by the shire will form the basis for the annual review of municipalities made on behalf of the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions.
A “review of methodologies” has seen the shire hire Metropolis Research to conduct the four “community satisfaction surveys”. The decision by shire directors and CEO John Baker follows two consecutive annual surveys which rated the shire at an “all time low” when it came to how its performance was perceived by residents. The quarterly surveys of 400 interviews with a “representative sample of residents” will cost $119,350 (“Shire hires ‘satisfaction’ survey team” The News 4/7/23). Holland was critical of the article which reported that the shire was
being criticised online that week for clearing fruit trees growing outside a Mount Eliza cafe; a large overhead neon sign in Mornington; the revamping and reduction in parking spaces at several foreshore car parks; and the trial of paid parking at three foreshore car parks. “By repeating the criticisms without qualification, you are further propagating the view that the criticism was warranted and appropriately directed at the shire. To do so in an article about community satisfaction only serves to further damage the shire’s reputation and standing in the community,” Holland said.
“Why would you say the above without providing the facts? The fruit trees were planted on public land without a permit and the shire worked with the owner to rectify the issue. The council objected to the billboard in Mornington but was overruled by VCAT … [and] the reduction of car parks at the foreshore in Blairgowrie is being proposed by the Whitecliffs Committee of Management, not the council.” Holland did not mention the paid parking trial. The annual surveys which have shown dissatisfaction with the shire’s performance were based on 800 interviews and rated the shire alongside 67
or the state’s 79 municipalities. “There are two providers in Victoria for this survey, and following a review of methodologies, we decided to switch our provider from JWS Research to Metropolis Research,” Holland said. He said the quarterly surveys “also gives us a larger sample size and allows for more open-ended questions to give us a deeper understanding of the key issues impacting community satisfaction”. “The questions are determined by the company in alignment with the state government’s requirements.” Continued Page 13