The Greens have launched Parks For Everyone, a policy initiative to focus the construction of new parks in the areas of the City of Melbourne in the greatest need. And we’ve done it with a front page splash in the Southbank News: our flagship project proposes a new 2.5 hectare park straddling CityLink!

Front page story, Southbank News, 7 October 2020

Our climate crisis and COVID-19 have shown us the sheer importance of green public open spaces: people need room to move, to experience the sun and each other, and to be healthy. Parks also keep our city cool and mitigate the effects of climate change, while facilitating our inner city biodiversity.

Our plan protects what we have, and builds more.

Southbank is the area of the municipality by far in greatest need of new green open space, followed by North Melbourne. However, our policy improves public open space throughout the municipality.

Our policy:

  1. Partners with the State Government to commence construction of a new large community park, decking over CityLink to connect the two halves of Southbank, to directly assist the part of the City of Melbourne in greatest need of new green open space.
  2. Builds a new civic park abutting North Melbourne Town Hall in the 2020-24 term of Council.
  3. Replicates the DHHS-Council partnership success of Neill St Carlton on Sutton St North Melbourne: expanded green open space for North Melbourne’s public housing community.
  4. Gets on with the job of creating greener, higher amenity high streets and esplanades in Southbank, West Melbourne, Kensington and Docklands.
  5. Accelerates our tree-planting programs and sees through new planning provisions to assist landowners in retaining greenery on their properties and to protect sunlight to parks.
  6. Improves the relationship between parks maintenance and heritage management, creating Conservation Management Plans for those heritage parks that still need them.

You can read our Parks For Everyone policy here.

Our flagship project: a new 2.5 hectare park straddling CityLink near Power Street in Southbank.