The lack of small local spaces available to hire was put under the limelight at the Melton council meeting this month, with councillors calling for more hireable community venues.
At the August 25 council meeting, councillor Julie Shannon called for officers to prepare a report outlining which council-managed venues, spaces, and facilities are provided for the community to access for regular booking hire or ad hoc casual one-off hire, along with the number of enquiries Melton has received over the last two years for hireable spaces and the types of requests.
Cr Shannon also called for an assessment on which type of hireable spaces are most in demand, where any gaps exist in provision, and opportunities for reduced fees for the community.
“The [Melton municipality] is growing so fast that one of the issues we face is a lack of small spaces to hire. It’s very common for community groups and local residents to really struggle to find appropriate places to hire for events,” Cr Shannon said.
“Residents of our city need to have places to hold things like a family event, birthday, engagement party … we need more hireable spaces where community groups might want to celebrate a festival or gather for a significant day,” she said.
“We need more places for our diverse community to do community.”
Cr Sophie Ramsey said she would also like to see more spaces, big and small, such as performing arts centres.
The motion also called on the council to use the information collated through the report to inform planning on existing projects being undertaken by council.
