John Masanauskas

May 07, 2007 12:00am

                                                   The Death of our suburbs

THE Bracks Government faces a massive backlash from the suburbs as a growing army of residents battles rising congestion and the loss of neighbourhood character caused by over-development.

Residents in established areas are furious that planning laws are ruining Melbourne's liveability by allowing the proliferation of multi-dwelling developments on what were single house blocks.

With the city's population expected to grow by at least one million over the next 20 years, the Government estimates an extra 620,000 dwellings will be needed to cope with the human surge driven significantly by overseas migration.

Growth limits have been imposed on new housing on Melbourne's outer fringe, so many of the extra people will have to crowd into established leafy suburbs, adding to congestion and reducing traditional amenity.

Official figures obtained by the Herald Sun show the City of Port Phillip will need at least an extra 15,000 houses and flats up to 2017.

Mornington Peninsula will need an extra 14,000 dwellings in established areas, 12,300 properties must be built in Monash, 11,600 in Whitehorse and 10,900 in Manningham.

The figures, from a 2003 Department of Sustainability and Environment report, are not included in public documents outlining the Government's controversial Melbourne 2030 planning strategy.

Mary Drost, convenor of lobby group Planning Backlash, said the 2030 plan and a booming population was slowly strangling the suburbs.

"We are gradually losing our green canopy through over-development, and there's increasing road congestion because of the extra population," she said. "We're dead short of water . . . and we're all starting to resent having to cut our showers down when there's a thousand more people a week coming into the city."

Planning Backlash, a loose coalition of up to 90 suburban protest groups, held a strategy meeting in Malvern yesterday.

Planning Minister Justin Madden will meet a delegation on Thursday.

Bob Birrell, from Monash University's Centre for Population and Urban Research, said the Bracks Government's planning policies and its drive for more migrants were helping to destroy the city's liveability.

Dr Birrell said while federal authorities had set the migrant intake, the Victorian Government was luring thousands of extra people to Melbourne each year through special visa programs.

The Bracks Government is trying to have it both ways," he said.

"On the one hand it is telling Melburnians they have the world's most liveable city, while on the other it is pushing this huge expansion in population.

"The two are actually irreconcilable."

A government spokesman said the 2030 plan had been developed because Melburnians had made it clear they did not want urban sprawl to continue

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