Importance of funding active transport infrastructure in Merri-bek budget to 2027

Separated Upfield Bike Path past Moreland Station

On behalf of Climate Action Merribek I sent in a submission to Merri-bek Council on their draft budget 2023-2027 on May 19. You can read the CAMerribek submission in full: Major backtrack on active transport projects in Draft Merri-bek Council Budget jeopardizes Climate Targets.  

Tonight, 29 May 2023, I fronted before Council Budget committee to speak to this presentation. There were a substantial number of submissions on Council Budget, evidently more than half focussed on the need for funding for more active transport infrastructure as a priority with many people opting to speak in person or online to Council on their submission.

My speech is below. As I only had 2 minutes to deliver, I excised a few paragraphs as marked with brackets, and still went slightly over..

There were some excellent presentations from citizens from Glenroy, Fawkner, Coburg North, Coburg, Brunswick West and Brunswick highlighting different facets of the problem, often with personal stories.

I have also included key findings of a new Climate Council report on Decarbonising Transport which support my presentation arguments and that of the CAMerribek submission.

Microplastics pollution threat fails to be included in Hockey Feasibility study for Moreland Council

On Wednesday night I made a statement to Moreland Council meeting on Agenda item 7.9 Hockey Feasibility Study for a second Field Hockey pitch in Moreland.

My concerns were that Council needs to consider all the information on health and environmental impacts of synthetic turf, as well as the well argued social benefits, as part of good governance for making an informed  decision. This includes assessing carbon footprint, greenhouse gas emissions climate impact, urban heat, microplastics pollution and reduction in biodiversity, and disposal at end-of-life.

The Feasibility Report had a number of errors which I tried to highlight in my statement, the major one being the complete absence of the microplastics pollution threat. 

A Swiss/German study published October 2021 found that between 50 kilograms to over 1 metric ton per year was the average fibre loss from a synthetic pitch. (Bertling et al 2021) This is separate from infill loss assessed at 2.98 tonnes average per year from the same study (which would mainly apply to soccer artificial turf rather than hockey). 

There are several more errors in the Feasibility study I did not go into.

The health and environmental impacts that were mentioned, were not adequately detailed or quantified which was in sharp comparison to data provided to justify the social benefits. 

My Literature Review: Synthetic Turf carbon footprint, environmental, health, microplastics and biodiversity impacts, published April 2021, highlighted numerous impacts including in the areas of urban heat, microplastics and carbon footprint. The Literature review also explored how use of synthetic turf is an aspect of the Plastics crisis, is concurrent with and related to the climate crisis.