MARK BURRY

Living on the fringe can make people sick

March 15, 2012

OPINION

Public health must be an objective of urban planning.

AFFORDABLE housing is something that every state government likes to say it has delivered, and every opposition likes to say is no longer attainable. The prospect that home ownership might slip from the grasp of most people is so potent a political threat that in recent decades governments of both persuasions have yielded to pressure from developers to release cheap new land on the urban fringe.

As we report today, however, the relentless expansion of the urban boundary is itself imposing a massive cost on taxpayers, in the form of chronic health and social problems in the new suburbs.

In evidence presented to the Legislative Council’s environment and planning committee, outer suburban councils have presented an alarming picture of poorly planned housing developments without basic community services. In parts of the City of Wyndham in Melbourne’s west – the fastest growing municipality in Australia in percentage terms – people have either no or very little access to public transport, coupled with insufficient parkland and leisure facilities.

via Living on the fringe can make people sick.

Sick suburbs

March 15, 2012

Point Cook resident Loren Bartley and her children Owen, 8, Zoe, 3 and Elliott, 6. Photo: Jason SouthPoorly planned new housing estates on Melbournes fringes are causing an outbreak of anxiety, diabetes and obesity among residents.ONE wet Saturday morning, Loren Bartley bundled her three young children into their waterproof jackets and packed their towels and bathers into a bag. Despite the torrential rain, they were making a trip on public transport from their home in Point Cook, a growth suburb in Melbournes outer west, to their nearest indoor public swimming pool.A member of the Point Cook Residents Association, Bartley wanted to use the expedition to demonstrate to Wyndham Council the need for an aquatic leisure centre in her suburb, which the group says has a dearth of indoor recreation facilities.

via Sick suburbs.