Reporter Joseph Hinchliffe will be tweeting and posting a live video on Facebook of the council meeting from 6pm. Follow him on @joe_hinchliffe or watch the live stream here. 

The full agenda is at the bottom of this page. 

Related:

8.46pm: Seven councillors vote against Cr Chapman’s motion. Councillors Leach and Cahpman vote in favour. 

8.28pm: Cr Cox’s motion carried, onto Cr Chapman’s motion about extending date of Hopley Recycling removal of stored material at unpermited site. 

8.14pm: Onto motions put forward by councillors – Cr Cox moves that council formally set aside a time slot at each Councillor Forum for community and business organisations to make presentations to Councillors on issues of concern.

8.13pm: Councillors vote to endorse contracts under delegation. 

8.10pm: Councillors – except Cr Chapman – vote to endorse the city’s loan borrowings. 

7.57pm: Seven councillors vote to acknowledge progress against the actions set out in the 2015-2016 City of Greater Bendigo Council Plan – councillors Leach and Chapman vote against it. 

7.47pm: Councillors vote unanimously in favour of renaming part of Bull St to Vahland St in honour of the famed local architect. 

7.40pm: Councillors vote in favour of Loddon Campaspe Integrated Transport Strategy and an alternative of the Greater Bendigo Heritage Advisory Committee forwarded by Cr Cox.  

7.27pm: Councillors vote unanimously in favour of Cr Ruffell’s motion to crack down on violence in the mall. 

7.17pm: Councillor Mark Weragoda says he has spoken with pensioners who are too afraid to cash their pension cheques in the mall. 

Cr Chapman says she does believe the issue is confined to the mall – and has been going on for several decades.

However she identifies underlying social problems and says council needs to provide hang-out spaces for disaffected youth. 

7.15pm: Cr Cox says the issue is not confined to the mall and is an issue which is felt across Australia and has been going on for generations. 

He says he has been contacted by one supermarket which had to call the police everyday for a week and another in which a security guard was attacked. 

“But first and foremost everyone deserves to work, shop or recreat safely,” he says.

“People following traders at end of day to carparks is just not on – that’s why we need greater emphasis on what needs to be done, additional police and additional CCTV,” he says.

7.13pm: Cr Leach supports Cr Ruffell but offers her own solution – close the mall. 

“If something isn’t done soon we will lose business, but frankly, I think the thing to do would be to get rid of the mall,” she says. 

7.10pm: Onto issue of more security for CBD. 

Cr Lisa Ruffell moves alternative motion which proposes more decisive action, including dedicated outreach and a education officer to try and reach out to disaffected youth, allowing police to use hand-held surveillance devices and to make sure a councillor from each ward attends community safety meetings. 

“Why I’ve asked for this alternative motion is that I’ve been meetings with local traders, with residents, with the federal and state members and it is clear we needed stronger action that was in the recommendation,” she said.

“This is all escalating and the people who use Hargreaves Mall have a lot of concerns.

“It is an ongoing thing and it is happening right across Australia – young people do not have a place to go.

“Whether its our fault as society or whether they just don’t want to get education I don’t know … but this is about trying to go forward.”

7.08pm: Councillors vote unanimously to release draft strategy for public comment. 

6.52pm: Onto draft rural communities strategy. 

6.51pm: Seven councillors vote in favour of the proposal, councillors Chapman and Leach vote against it.

6.45pm: Councillors Leach and Chapman speak against the recommendation, with Cr Leach saying the city will lose millions of dollars as its athletics track falls into disrepair. 

“This isn’t just about sport, this is also about our economy,” Cr Leach says.

“Our athletics track is past its used-by date and badly needs treatment – I’m pretty disappointed that we didn’t get a condition report.”

Cr Chapman goes further – she says she is “absolutely mortified” and “furious”.

”We’ve got to the point where we will lose events to neighouring councils like Ballarat,” she says.

6.41pm: Onto applications for sporting grant applications.

Cr Rod Campbell speaks in favour of the applications which the report recommends. 

“We could provide a list as long as your arm each year,” he says.

“But we need to whittle down a list of proposals which will be taken seriously”.

6.40pm: Councillors table and endorse bench marking process undertaken by council planning department, which compares the development approval process with similar council’s in Victoria. 

“I want to congratulate the planning department,” Cr Williams says.

“The independent review played a role in reforming these processes … one of the, necessitating more than three objections … that dealt with frivolous objections.”

6.34pm: Councillors vote unanimously in favour to allow development. 

6.25pm: This block was initially rejected when developers suggested it be a 20-home subdivision and has been to VCAT.

Councillor James Williams thanks the objectors and says it is a win for the council process.

Councillor Peter Cox says he initially opposed the subdivision but now believed it fitted into the council’s vision of a compact city. 

“People who live here would be very close to shopping, buses, childcare ... lots of open space,” Cr Cox says.

“It makes a whole lot of sense to develop this particular block.”

However he says he is disappointed there is not more diversity in the homes – they are all three-bedroom. 

6.20pm: Onto a 17-lot subdivision application in Epsom. 

6.17pm: Councillors vote unanimously to support recommendation.  

6.16pm: Councillors Barry Lyons and Elise Chapman speak in favour of the proposal to investigate dealing with the road in the 2017/18 budget. 

6.15pm: Council responds to petition about dealing with a dusty unsealed road in Lockwood. 

“I know it is probably not what these people wanted but there are a lot of raods to maintain,” Cr Chapman says. 

Related: Bendigo council considers report on Lockwood's dusty roads

6.10pm: Question time over. Five questions asked, the first from lead anti-mosque campaigner Julie Hoskin, the second about council’s plans to prevent major bushfires, the third about the removal of a barbecue shelter in Malone Park, Marong, the fourth about changes to question time, the final question about the removal of the scoreboard at Tom Flood sports ground. 

In relation to the last question, the Mayor Rod Fyffe concedes their “may have been an oversight” in not contacting a sporting group who uses the ground but not the scoreboard. 

6pm:  Meeting now live. Full turnout of councillors and more than 15 people in the public gallery.