Concerned traders and customers of Preston Market are set to attend a community meeting next Thursday to express their worries over development plans for the site.
After much to-ing and fro-ing, the developer’s plans were finally unveiled to traders last week, revealing three towers of up to 14 storeys located in the north-west car park of the site, which will not have an impact on the existing market structure.
However, the promise hasn’t been very successful at appeasing concerns, with people still confused about the type of market developers have in mind and whether traders will continue to have job security, following the eviction of three long-term tenants.
Manny Spiteri, a leasing advocate representing the market’s 150 traders, told Neos Kosmos that they are not opposed to the development, but rather, are seeking a more transparent consultation process.
“Development is good and progress is good; there is a positive there. But the Preston Market is a cultural hub of the northern suburbs. What they’re seeking is consultation, transparency and the ability to be able to have a say in what the community has had there for over 45 years,” he said.
The cultural diversity in the area of Italians, Greeks, Maltese, Chinese and various other ethnic groups has, over the last four decades, seen Preston Market transform into a safe and welcoming space, where people go to purchase their cultural foods and meet up with friends as they were accustomed to in the old country.
While Mr Spiteri recognises that the site is private property, with the owners having every right to develop as they wish, he urges them to acknowledge that they are not working from a blank canvas, as was the case with developments in Thomastown and Epping, but a plot of land with cultural significance.
“They keep talking about a market, but the cultural significance of the end product is not known. They do not know what type of a market, who’s staying, who’s going, when it’s happening, and all those other issues,” which he says for the traders feels like “a death of a thousand cuts”.
Honorary secretary of the Darebin Progress Association and spokesperson for the community meeting, Marion Harper, says there’s a lot of anecdotal information about the direction of the development, but no clear communication regarding what it will mean for the community.
“What we would like is for the developer to set out exactly what they’re planning, and we can’t get that. We want their plan laid out and the opportunity for the community to assess it,” which she says will be a big focus at Thursday’s meeting.
Based on the little information they have had access to, Ms Harper says the first proposal to the council was for 1,500 units, which the community is opposed to, concerned the towers will destroy the amenity of the market and give them a sanitised version in its place.
“We believe that the whole planning system needs to be revamped so that it is more consumer and people-friendly and not so much developer- friendly,” Ms Harper explains.
As for the $4 million revamp that has been promised, while it is welcomed – and has been needed for over a decade − she suspects the timing is all about “dampening down opposition”.
The matter is one close to the community’s heart, and so too for Mr Spiteri, who has lived in Preston since 1957.
Since coming on board in March, he says the developer’s approach has been all wrong, and disrespectful to those who have given so much of their life working on site and adding to the area’s vibrancy.
“Their so called ‘consultation’ is ‘bang – this is what we’re doing’. All they do is come up with spin doctors, PR people, community engagement people to say we have consulted the community and the traders. You speak to any of these traders and what do you find? That the plans have gone in. Have they consulted with any of the traders about the plans before submitting them to council? No.”
Another major concern for traders is the 850 car parks that will be taken up by the development. So far plans have revealed that upon completion there will be 600 car parks allocated per 1,000 apartments, which Mr Spiteri says is inadequate.
“The heart of any retail space is people coming to it. When you are looking at a development this size, they’re going to obliterate the parking and during the construction phase there’s going to be a loss.
“Under the Retail Leases Act are they going to compensate the loss of trade because of parking? They won’t answer that. Because what they want to do is draw you into legal action. Now, what small trader can afford that?”
The meeting will be chaired by writer and comedian Rod Quantock OAM and is expected to be attended by at least 200 people.
“What we’re seeking is one proper consultation, a definition of a market that is going to be comparable to what the community has now, transparency and inclusion. Because once these guys build their 1,500 apartments and they’re [the traders] gone, what’s the community got left?”
The Save Preston Market community meeting will take place on Tuesday 27 September at the Melbourne Polytechnic, Building F, 77 St Georges Road, Preston, VIC from 7.00 pm to 9.30 pm. For more information, contact Marion Harper on 0405 234 528.