Eye on future

By Russell Bennett
THE FUTURE of Mount Evelyn will be in the hands of its residents at a crucial planning day early next month.
Raising awareness of local men’s health issues, solving a housing shortage, and reinvigorating the town centre will all be hot topics for debate at the seventh annual Mount Evelyn Township Planning Day on 9 February.
The brainchild of Morrisons CEO Jan Simmons, the event gives every one of Mount Evelyn’s more than 9000 residents the chance to have a say on the direction of their town in 2012.
Ms Simmons said the Mount Evelyn Men’s Shed and local doctors had both recognised the importance of highlighting men’s health issues.
“It continues to be an issue because men just don’t look after themselves,” she said. “They’re in denial until they finally have to go to the doctor and then it’s like secret men’s business instead of that sort of regular check-up.
“It’s been identified as a big issue in Mount Evelyn.”
Ms Simmons also pointed to Mount Evelyn’s young population – with only five per cent over the age of 60 – as a reason for increased medium density housing close to public transport and the town centre.
An idea put forward through the Mount Evelyn Street Party late last year was a fresh food market.
“We did a survey on the day of the street party,” Ms Simmons said.
“Everyone said they’d like to have a fresh food market, not a farmers’ market, but just fresh food that everybody’s backyard produces.
“We just need to make sure it’s low-cost and people can access it easily.”
Ms Simmons said she got the inspiration for the planning day from a study trip to a small Scottish town, Brechin, eight years ago.
“They do a lot of community planning there,” she said.
“I went to a couple of community planning meetings and talked to the people about how they went about things.
“I then brought it back to adapt it to this community.”
In 2006, a group of 20 Mount Evelyn identities – including council and community group members, residents, educators, politicians, police officers, firefighters and businesspeople – came together to try to identify what the town was missing.
By last year, that group had grown to 80 members.
The project is operated and funded by the Mount Evelyn Township Improvement Committee (METIC) and the Mount Evelyn Bendigo Bank branch.
Ms Simmons said the planningday was needed to give Mount Evelynresidents a sense of direction, and totake ownership of their town moving forward.
“If we don’t do those things, we’djust get a messy operation, which isoften what happens in communities,”she said.
“We’ve decided that’s not what we want for this town.
“We want something a bit more focussed.
“We’ve actually learned to work together really well.”
The Mount Evelyn Township Planning Day will be held on 9 February from 6.30-9pm at the Station House on Wray Crescent. Anyone interested in attending should RSVP by calling Morrisons on 9736 1457 or the Community Link on 9736 1177 by 30 January.