24 July 2019

Trains running late Brodie Cowburn brodie@baysidenews.com.au

New CEO chosen JULIE Reid has been announced as the new CEO of Kingston Council.

Ms Reid replaces outgoing CEO John Nevins, who has been with Kingston Council since 2005.

Her tenure will begin on 26 August.

“I look forward to working in such a diverse council that has a positive reputation for quality service and delivery. I have a strong commitment to engaging with councillors, staff and the community to build on the great work of the council,” Ms Reid said.

Kingston mayor Georgina Oxley said “I am proud to welcome Julie Reid as the new CEO of the City of Kingston and look forward to working together for great outcomes for our community.”

“With 30 years’ experience in the public sector in Australia and the UK, Ms Reid has expertise in major infrastructure projects, strategic planning, urban design, economic development, tourism, arts, events and more,” she said.

Cr Oxley also thanked Mr Nevins for his work at council. “John has left an incredible legacy at Kingston with our council in a strong financial position, high quality community facilities, an enormous range of services offered and a strong local economy,” she said.

Ms Reid is the first woman to ever be CEO of Kingston Council.

TRAINS on the Frankston line are running late more often, Metro figures reveal.

Frankston line trains were on time 90.4 per cent of the time in April of this year, but that number has since dropped. In June, just 83.1 per cent of trains on the line ran on time. The number is also down on the 88.3 per cent of all Metro train services that ran on time during June.

Metro Trains had set a target of 92 per cent punctuality. As a result of their failure to meet that target, Metro will compensate its passengers.

Metro department acting deputy secretary Alan Fedda said “the sub 90 per cent performance means Metro will pay compensation to passengers. A number of incidents contributed to the result including an overhead power issue near Aircraft Station on 3 June and a collision between a train and car near Mentone Station on 12 June.”

“Metro Trains’ contract with the state government includes tougher measures than ever before in relation to punctuality. We expect them to meet these targets and deliver a service that our passengers deserve,” he said.

“These results are unacceptable and we will continue to work with Metro Trains to ensure its performance returns to the expected levels.”

Mr Fedda said that more than 100 incidents involving ill passengers had also caused delays. He said that under the state government contract to operate the train and tram networks, Metro can be fined up to $1.25 million per month.

Shadow minister for public transport David Davis said “despite the billions of dollars spent on public transport construction including level crossing removals on the Frankston line, the reality for Frankston line commuters is that there has been a dramatic and unacceptable fall in reliability and punctuality on their line.”

Passengers can visit metrotrains.com.au to claim compensation.

Residents should ‘keep separating recycling’ Brodie Cowburn brodie@baysidenews.com.au KINGSTON Council has confirmed that their contract with SKM Recycling “continues” with recycling from the municipality being sent to SKM’s Hallam site.

Councils statewide were hit by the news that the EPA had stopped SKM from receiving recycling at their Laverton North site earlier this month.

SKM face an uncertain future, which could effect more than 30 councils

across Victoria.

Kingston general manager of city assets and environment Daniel Freer said “unless the situation changes, our existing contract with SKM continues, with Kingston’s recycling being taken to their Hallam site.”

“We have been meeting regularly with the state government and other south east local councils to establish partnerships and establish contingency plans, in case the situation changes so that we can respond quickly,” he said.

“Council would like residents to continue separating their recycling

from their general rubbish and put it out for collection as usual.

“We will continue to monitor the situation and meet with stakeholders to discuss the bigger picture.”

Earlier this year Kingston became tied up in the state’s recycling crisis and was forced to send around 1300 tonnes of recyclable material to landfill. When two SKM centres were closed in February, Kingston Council negotiated a deal to send recyclable material to be processed by Polytrade (“Recycling saved from landfill”, The News, 27/3/19).

Kingston councillor Steve Staikos told his followers on Facebook that “the recycling industry in this country is at the point of market failure, and this is the time for meaningful government intervention, real leadership and practical solutions. This crisis will not be fixed by reviewing contracts or by finger pointing between councils and the state government. The community expects us to fix this. Especially as they pay waste levies, council rates and other waste charges.”

“Kingston Council’s recycling is contracted to SKM, so this issue is im-

pacting our community. In metro Melbourne there are three major recycling providers, Polytrade, Visy and SKM. At this stage there are no other viable alternatives for councils to turn to,” he said.

“Unless we start our own processing facilities which will take much time and a lot of money, and we haven’t been able to do this without breaking our contracts with our existing providers. Even then there’s the issue of what to do with the material we sort out.”

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Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News

24 July 2019

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