Royal Park Protection Group Inc
MEDIA RELEASE 6 FEBRUARY 2004
MORE GOVERNMENT PROMISES BROKEN OVER ROYAL PARK
News broke today in the "Age" newspaper that Games Minister Madden has authorised expansion of the Games Village into Royal Park. An area of over 7 hectares, consisting of one of the Park’s major sports fields and the new Wetlands area, is to be designated as an exercise area for athletes and will be enclosed within the Games Village security perimeter fence. This land grab comes despite repeated assurances by the Minister since last July that the Village would not expand into Royal Park. The Commonwealth Games Cabinet Sub-Committee, chaired by John Brumby, even denied recently that there were plans to alienate areas of Royal Park to solve space problems in the Village.
Julianne Bell Convenor of the Royal Park Protection Group commented: "In his term of office Minister Madden has left a trail of broken promises in his wake: first over the demolition of Royal Park Hospital heritage buildings and then over the failed pledge to plant 2.5 million trees in Victoria to offset Games carbon emissions. Now we have one of the biggest betrayals of the community. We have heard the mantra oft repeated by Minister Madden, inside and outside Parliament, that the Village would never be built in Royal Park. We heard today, however, about plans to take over 7 hectares of west Royal Park for the Games Village. In the past we have learnt the hard way that, once gone, parklands are rarely ever returned’.
The Bricks Government’s solution to "ease the squeeze" on the site, following criticism that the accommodation in the permanent houses was over crowded, hot and noisy, has been to produce portable huts to supplement the accommodation. These new corrugated iron "cottages" will be crammed onto every available corner of the site and will even spill onto the grounds of the Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria next door.
It beggars belief that the captains of industry and the finest brains of the Government bureaucracy could not cope with a simple arithmetical problem and recognise years ago that 6,000 athletes and official on the 20 hectares of the Parkville Games Village site simply can’t fit. Watch this space. The saga isn’t over yet."
The Royal Park Protection Group is a member of the Commonwealth Games Community Liaison Committee for the Games Village, which has yet to reveal the plans to its members for this latest takeover of Royal Park
MEDIA CONTACT:
Julianne Bell Convenor Royal Park Protection Group 98184114 or 0408022408