Latest market news
The latest happening with the market
The process to decide the fate of Preston Market lies mainly behind closed doors, in the hands of the politicians and private developers. As regular people we do not get to hear their conversation and the private agreements, and we certainly don’t get to have any real input. The government pretends that this process is open and transparent, but as the Preston Market Action Group has discovered, when you try and stand up to have a voice about something which will drastically affect your community they try their best to silence and ignore you.
Therefore it is one of our tasks to make sure that everyone in the community is aware of the current situation with the market! These are the facts as we understand them at this stage:
→ The fate of the market was supposed to be decided last year in October 2021, but the process was delayed because the Victorian Planning Authority received 386 submissions to their plans, of which all but 5 were against their proposal which included knocking down 80% of the market.
→ The previous Minister for Planning, Richard Wynne, referred the issue to the Standing Advisory Committee (SAC), a supposedly independent state government panel of planners, to make a recommendation on how the government should proceed. The SAC was supposed to meet early in 2022, but this has now been delayed and is currently scheduled for a hearing in October 2022, an entire year later.
→ At the same time, the VPA revised their plans for the market, reducing the number of apartments from 2200 to 1200 - however, the new plans still allow for 80% of Preston Market to be destroyed. The proposed reduction in apartment numbers made the developers cry foul that they would not make enough profit.
→ Those that made one of the 386 submissions to the VPA in 2021 are entitled to stand before the SAC in October 2022 hearing and put their case; this includes community members, Darebin Council, the VPA, and the developers SALTA.
What we’re doing
The Save The Preston Market Action Group will be making several presentations, but the SAC hearing is overwhelmingly biased towards the developers - they have expensive barristers representing them and will take up days and days of the hearing, whereas we are volunteer community members and will only take up several hours.
The SAC will then make a recommendation to the new minister, Lizzie Blandthorne of the Australian Labor Party, on what they should do about the market. If they decide that the plans are appropriate then the new Victorian Minister for Planning, Lizzie Blandthorn of the Labor Party, maywell sign off on the plans to knock down the market. If the SAC decides there are enough problems with the current plans then they will advise the VPA to go back and redo the plans - possibly changing them so that the market remains standing.
Locally, Robin Scott, the previous state MP for Preston, will not be recontesting his seat. Instead he will be replaced by Nathan Lambert who has been parachuted into what is considered a safe Labor seat.
The state election will be hotly contested, however, with the Greens making gains nationally in the 2022 federal election which many expect will be reflected in the upcoming state election. Either way, the Preston Market Action Group is going to do all it can to make saving the market a major election issue!
