Council

The show goes on despite a 20% budget cut. St Kilda Festival will be back in 2026 on the weekend of 14 and 15 February. Applications open for the New Music Competition this week. Pictured are last year’s winners, Velvet Bloom.

Join the race to save Albert Park Lake from a 21-day lock-out period for each Grand Prix. Have your say before the 14-day consultation period ends on 11 August and the legislation goes into Parliament later in August.

Mayor Louise Crawford provides a right of reply statement to the recent TWiSK Community Satisfaction Survey story. Her response is printed in full.

The results of Council’s annual community satisfaction survey have been published and the results are disappointing but not surprising. Our council is rated as below average on most measures by residents sampled in 900 household interviews conducted in March and April 2025. TWiSK presents the key findings.

Council is using a new survey method to measure community satisfaction. But can the latest results be fairly compared to past results? Trevor White asks the question, Can you compare a ‘pear’ with an ‘apple’?

The Victorian Fisheries Authority recently released 1,500 ‘ready to catch’ rainbow trout into Albert Park Lake under its school holiday program to encourage young anglers. Another 1,500 are planned for September. Local nature lovers are not happy.

As trees are axed to make way for a $350M new Pit Building for the GP, Save Albert Park has scheduled a demonstration of protest for 11am Saturday 2 August 2025.

The Council is set to reduce time limits on public questions and councillor statements at public meetings. How important are public questions and comprehensive debate? The Council is seeking your comments before Sunday 3 August.

The chainsaws are being sharpened to remove dozens of mature Albert Park trees, fuelling  growing anger about the high price of the new Grand Prix pit building. From Kelly Brennan from the Lake ALIVE! group.

After many weeks of consultation, intense negotiations, and compromise, the draft Council budget was approved at last Monday’s special council meeting. However, it was a night of some surprises and last-minute manoeuvring.