Saturday 3 November 2012

Some Lord Mayoral Quotes This Week - 3/11/2012


Some Lord Mayoral Quotes This Week
1. Councillor Doyle said he would consider borrowing funds for a staged refurbishment of the QVM that could cost more than $100 million. "I just don't like to see one of the city's most precious assets running down," he said.
2. "If we don't make a start now, in 10 years we may not have a Queen Victoria Market." Under a potential Doyle plan, the 134-year-old market would be turned into a Federation Square-style precinct with a park and plaza opened on the current carpark site.
It would be equipped to stage festivals and other events, while the market trading areas would be upgraded with improvements such as major refrigeration storage and hot and cold water access. Cr Doyle said that the heritage sheds would be renovated, with all the works planned in consultation with traders and the wider community.Cr Doyle said an underground carpark could be built under the sheds but not under the existing carpark, which is the site of an early Melbourne cemetery.
3. Cr Doyle would not be drawn on a funding model for his new "number one priority" of the Queen Victoria Market. He was asked why he did not mention the $100 million Queen Victoria Market redevelopment plan as part of his election campaign. "Let me be very blunt with you here, the previous council did a good deal of work on the Queen Victoria Market and we have a series of meetings with the traders," Cr Doyle said. "I didn't think it was appropriate, given that the work really belonged to the previous council, not to me personally. To trot that out as an election or campaign promise, I didn't think it would be held in good faith with the other councillors in the previous council who have made a contribution to it." he said.
4. LORD Mayor Robert Doyle has conceded his planned $100 million refurbishment of Queen Victoria Market is not a "fait accompli", in an otherwise harmonious start for the newly elected Melbourne City Council.