More shade trees in public spaces

We agree! Every year council plants more trees in public places to help get us closer to council’s stated aim of 30% tree canopy coverage across Monash by 2040.

Identifying new public spaces for greening

We hear that you value greening up public spaces. While we have no control to green up land managed by other public bodies or private entities, we are greening council land and have planted a micro forest in Wellington Reserve, Mulgrave and a tiny forest, in partnership with Earthwatch Australia in Fraser Street, Glen Waverley in the past 12 months.

Better protection of trees on private property

The removal of trees and gardens from properties, during developments and renovations, and their replacement with paving and other hard surfaces is frustrating to many people who live in Monash, and we are trying to stop it.

For the last five years Council has been asking the Minister for Planning and the Victorian Government to give us planning controls to protect and improve the landscape and tree canopy of Monash.

There is currently a campaign for ratepayers to contact the Minister for Planning’s office directly to let them know you support this campaign. You can find more information and a draft letter and email to do this at www.monash.vic.gov.au/protect-our-trees

More home gardens

It is valuable for us to know that this is a popular idea that the community values it. We are actively supporting the greening of our home gardens and community through the Monash Gardens for Wildlife program, which also has volunteer Garden Guides to give advice, the Nature strip planting project and the Monash Public Library Service’s Seed Library.

Information on how to grow your own food, can be found in our Gardens for Harvest booklet at our Sustainable gardens webpage.

We do not currently have a ban on fake grass but will consider this feedback for future work.

We have been really pleased to hear from some of our residents that participated in the consultation that they have been inspired to investigate options for improving their home insultation.

Building standards are set by the state government. There are some government rebates for draft stopping but not for insulation.

We do support the community to achieve cooler homes, including through advocacy and education.

We hold and promote community activities that include education sessions around weather sealing and increasing energy efficiency around the home, that are advertised via our Sustainable Monash E-Newsletter.

Subscribe for the latest local and global news, updates and events related to sustainability at Sustainable Monash - News and Events.

We hear that you think Council has a role, in addition to the electricity suppliers and state government, in promoting efficient and responsible air conditioning use.

Vic Energy offer rebates to help households to install more intelligent and efficient air conditioning.

Monash Council supports the Solar Savers program in providing access to affordable and efficient heating and cooling systems (as well as heat pumps).

Council does make water available at all our libraries and installs drinking taps in parks and reserves, as do other government agencies on land that they manage. We hear that you want more drinking taps.

There are Victoria-wide campaigns relating to this. We do promote child safety in hot weather information produced by the state government, and we share information from VicEmergency through our communication channels.

That is not something Council currently does, besides encouraging people to seek air conditioning such as at shopping centres during heat waves.

Council has three municipal swimming pools, located at Oakleigh, Glen Waverley and Clayton.

We will continue to share state government/VicEmergency information on staying cool during heat waves and will continue to review and build on the information we provide on our channels in the leadup to expected extreme heat events.