Items on tonight’s agenda include a request to veto the Education Department’s planned demolition of an Epsom Primary School building and a proposal for a memorial to former mayor Daryl McClure OAM in Rosalind Park.

Council will also consider a recommendation to continue the city’s Meals on Wheels program and decide whether to endorse strategies on housing, public space, rural communities, cultural diversity and the environment and award several major contracts.

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That wraps up our coverage of this week’s bumper council meeting, decisions on the council’s Final Cultural Diversity And Inclusion Plan, Health and Community Care Services and the city’s environment strategy will be published on the council website in the coming days.

8.30pm: The motion has passed.

“I think we need to do better in regard to supporting economic development in rural areas, we need to do better in communicating with residents in rural areas, so if we’re fair dinkum about the next four year council plan has got to reflect that,” Cr Cox said.

8.21pm: Cr Campbell speaks in favour.

“This is another very, very important strategy we’re considering tonight,” he said.

“For many years rural communities have felt somewhat alienated, this is the message they’re telling us, ‘we’re a bit disconnected out there, it’s all to urban, the focus is too urban, we pay good rates and we want to be heard and we want to be heard at a higher level than what we’re heard now’, and I’ve got that message.” 

8.17pm: Councillors consider adopting the Rural Communities Strategy, once again sans Cr Chapman due to a conflict of interest.

Cr Williams speaks in favour.

“In adopting this strategy we ask the future council to look at and consider funding the options spelled out in this strategy,” he said.

8.13pm: The motion has passed with congratulations to the ward councillors for pushing the project from Cr Lyons.

“It started as an aspirational dream that had very little funding and we’re actually at a stage where it’s taking shape,” he said.

8.05pm: Cr Ruffell has enthusiastically moved a motion to endorse the awarding of the contract for the Garden for the Future at the Bendigo Botanic Gardens to Ace Landscape Services.

“I’m so excited,” she said.

“Eight years on nearly and we’re actually getting Bendigo Botanical Gardens White Hilsl a future garden for the children.

“Here we are tonight awarding a contract for the Garden for the Future.”

8pm: The motion has passed.

“I would encourage anyone with an interest and a passion for the outdoors to look at this strategy in the next six weeks,” Cr Williams said.

“I really look forward to this strategy and the feedback from the community.”

7.50pm: Cr Cox speaks in favour.

“We are very, very privileged in Greater Bendigo to have so much public open space and what we need to do is to acknowledge it, number one, and number two to make greater use of it,” he said.

7.44pm: Councillors consider endorsing the Greater Bendigo Public Space Plan.

Cr Chapman has excused herself after declaring a conflict of interest.

7.41pm: The motion is carried unanimously.

7.36pm: Councillors are considering the awarding of the contract to manage the city’s larger aquatic and leisure facilities to preferred contractor Belgravia Leisure.

Cr Lyons speaks in favour.

“Aquatics is one of the biggest and best healtly lifestyles in any regional city and I think we hit well above our weight, we’ve got some magnificently well run pools,” he said.

7.31pm: The motion has passed.

7.22pm: Cr Leach speaks against the motion.

“The tennis centre concept is very good and I like tennis too but I just don’t think we should be committing the next council to further borrowings or debt,” she said.

“Who’s going to be filling in the gaps to get this project completed, that’s what I’d like to know.”

7.18pm: Cr Ruffell has urged fellow councillors to support the awarding of the Bendigo Tennis Centre redevelopment to Nicholson Construction.

7.13pm: The motion is carried.

7.03pm: Leach speaks against.

“I don’t believe council should enter the public housing, affordable housing space at all,” she said.

“This best left to other levels of government and could easily become an expensive lesson.”

6.58pm: Councillors are debating the Greater Bendigo Housing Strategy.

Cr Cox speaks in favour.

“We’ve just had a debate about compact housing, and the last motion was lost for that development because it was not thought through," he said.

“Let’s identify where key development sites are.”

6.48pm: The motion is lost.

6.43pm: Cr Leach has moved a motion to allow demolition of an outbuilding at 41 Gladstone Street, Quarry Hill and subdivide the land into two lots and construct a two-storey dwelling.

“The social economic and environmental outcomes achieved with this particular infill far outweigh any weak arguments against,” Cr Leach said.

Cr Campbell spoke against the motion.

“I’m looking at the house here and, with respect, I think there’s probably more imaginative creations that could have been prevented and I do not believe this reflects the demands of residents,” he said.

6.35pm: The motion to endorse the appeal to Mr Wynne has passed.

6.30pm: Councillors discuss whether to endorse a request to Planning Minister Richard Wynne to halt the demolition of an 1881 Epsom Primary School building.

“What this motion does is puts a process in place, we’re asking the minister to provide an interim heritage order so all the parties can come together and decide what’s best for the future,” Cr Cox said.

“It’s a relatively small building but it’s right on the boundary on Howard Street and one of the important heritage aspects is that heritage plays big role in streetscapes, so with it being on the boundary and with Epsom losing many of its former heritage buildings, this is a particularly important site.”

Cr Chapman reads a letter from the Epsom School Council which explains the building would push the school over its state government mandated building entitlement.

“It’s poorly positioned, out of place with the new school’s design and would be expensive for the school to maintain,” the letter reads.

“Those comment are from the people who are actually living it, so I just couldn’t let it go without voicing their concerns” Cr Chapman said.

6.10pm: Question three: Can the rotunda be returned to the mall?

Answer: That option was not supported by the council or the community.

6.08pm: Question two: What guarantee can be given that the organic waste service will not be a financial black hole?

Answer: The trial showed it will be viable.

6.03pm: There are three questions on notice tonight. The first relates to solar access to town houses.

6pm: The council meeting is under way.