The Age: 40-year plan for Melbourne watered down. November 24, 2014, Clay Lucas, City Editor, The Age

Melbourne would be heading in a dramatically different direction if the draft of a 40-year plan for the city – written by six experts hand-picked by Planning Minister Matthew Guy – had been adopted.

Their never-before-seen report was the first take of the Napthine government’s Plan Melbourne, the long-term strategy for how the city will grow over the next four decades.

But the August 2013 draft plan produced by the government’s Ministerial Advisory Committee over more than a year, with resources and support from the transport and planning department, was drastically watered down.

The group was established in July 2011 by Mr Guy to “direct the development” of Plan Melbourne. Their work included exhaustive public consultations to tap into the concerns of everyday people.

Their draft report was never released but former Brumby government adviser Andrew Herington requested it under freedom of information. Continue Reading…