The Greens

Due to the current restrictions, this is how we are going to keep you safe:

– We have cancelled all entertainment until further notice
– Masks will be compulsory in our club
– Drinking while standing is not allowed
– Keep your singing voice at home, singing is not allowed
– Keep your dancing shoes at home, dancing is not allowed
– To keep you safe we will have one person per four square meter
– People who have been in the Greater Sydney region including the Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Wollongong will not be allowed into the club

Melbourne City Council has ripped out hundreds of car parking spaces and installed 15km of new bike lanes without doing any traffic-flow studies.

The 15km of protected bike lanes have been built since June last year – but an analysis on the impact was only done on 5km of it.

At the same time, 360 parking spaces have gone.

The new bike lanes – part of the council’s Transport Strategy 2030 plan, launched in 2019 – has angered businesses in the city. Collins St designer store owner Sener Besim said traders were “extremely frustrated” and claimed they hadn’t been consulted.

”They are deterring people coming into the city, they are deterring my customers who are saying, ‘It’s too hard, I used to be able to park’,” he said.

“Why are they (council) making it so hard for people to come in and shop?”

Small Business Australia executive director Bill Lang said the bike lanes needed to be “ripped up straight away” with the city “on its knees”.

“The bike lanes are like cholesterol to the flow of small business activity in the city,” he said. “It’s like building a great wall to keep car drivers out of the city.”

Mr Lang said the forfeited road space left less pick-up or drop-off areas for taxi or rideshare drivers, and had driven up costs by 15 per cent for traders who were paying more to transport companies for earlier deliveries.

Carol Drew lives within 5km of two train lines and likened hearing the “constant” blasts to “Chinese water torture”.

Ms Drew’s petition, calling for a reduction in the noise pollution from train horns, has been tabled in the Legislative Council, sponsored by the Leader of the Victorian Greens Dr Samantha Ratnam.

Leader understands in order for community members to have their petitions tabled in parliament, they need an MP to sponsor it, with the MP not actually behind the petition, or the push for it.

Ms Ratnam was contacted for comment and asked if she supported the petition, but a spokesperson referred questions to Ms Drew.

Ms Drew wants drivers to use their horns in emergencies only.

“Residents and workers near railways are subjected to frequent horn blasts hundreds of times a week and almost always as a matter of routine at any time of the day or night,” the petition states.

“The horns are supposed to be a low-cost solution to safety, but the true costs are externalised in the form of noise pollution.”