NORTH Ballarat residents have joined as one to form a new lobby group which aims to create new ideas for the region.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Committee For North Ballarat aims to lobby council and other entities and encourage community involvement throughout northern suburbs to take pride locally in an area that rarely gets in the headlines.
Committee president Neil Para said the group wanted to encourage the community, develop friendships and work as one for projects.
“When I walk around the area, maybe go to a park and you speak with neighbours there is a lot of concerns here,” he said.
“Some people have said they had written to the council and had not heard anything, so we thought instead of writing about issues individually, why can’t we have a committee who can do the leg for the residents’ interests.”
Among the ideas which have been discussed include an upgrade of the Doveton Street North water park, the creation of a community garden in the centre median strip of Landsborough Street and the possibility of a new roundabout at the corner of Landsborough and Havelock streets.
Resident Steve Barnes said the City of Ballarat needed to pay more attention to the area.
“You look at the trees across the road and they are hanging down on top of cars and they’ve dropped branches,” he said.
“I’ve complained to council multiple times and nothing gets done.
“We’ve had some problems with hoons, you can see the burnout marks that go right down the street.
“We’d also love to see something done to the water park, if there was some more foliage, we could do something like that.”
Secretary Stephanie Gobor said the group did not just want to focus on the negatives, understanding that not every problem can be fixed straight away.
“We don’t just want to be about the negatives, we want to get the community to get along and as neighbours,” she said.
“We shouldn’t always be relying on council for changes, so the aim is for the people to take back a little amount of control, we should all take responsibility for the place we live in.”
The group meets at the Golf House Hotel on the second Friday of every month from 6pm.
People wishing to be part of the group or wishing to contact it can do so via email at northballarat@yahoo.com
Have you signed up to The Courier's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in Ballarat.