Merri-bek has proactively been creating new areas of open space via the Park Close to Home program since 2017. Through this program, we have built several new open spaces and several more are planned in the coming years. This has included the Bulleke-bek Park, Brunswick, a new 2,300sqm park in central Brunswick, and Citadel Park, Glenroy, which both provide much needed open space for residents of nearby houses and apartments.

Our community has been extremely positive about these new parks and the program. The new Open Space Strategy provides opportunity to harness this positive feedback for input into new open spaces.

Councils wants to increase open space usage and access to all persons within Merri-bek. We acknowledge however access to our open space, including specific facilities and locations, needs to be further explored and invested within. We have opportunity to ensure open space is more accessible for all when we create the new open space strategy, such as:

• Reviewing the condition of sports ground needed for formal sports, and other uses which may reduce the condition of these grounds.
• Exploring how we can increase access to our sports grounds, such as in the evening when a sports club has an allocation at a sports ground.
• Exploring how our playgrounds can cater to persons (children, parents, carers) who experience disability. This includes physical barriers that make open space difficult to access for persons with disabilities / mobility impairments including prams, such as: uneven terrain, stairs, lack of accessible parking, paths, and toilets.
• Explore how facilities in our open spaces can better cater for persons experiencing homelessness.
• Exploring how our open spaces can better include sensory considerations and provide for persons with sensory disabilities.

Council recognises the need for children to have access to a variety of play experiences and creative play spaces in the outdoor, natural world. The Merri-bek 2016-2020 Play Strategy identified that play using natural materials (stone, soil, leaves, plants), waterways, shade as well as formal playgrounds, is important to for children’s learning, health, and wellbeing. Whilst Merri-bek has an established network of playgrounds, it has been identified that creative play, such as play using natural materials (stone, soil, leaves, plants), may be lacking. The strategy will explore these facilities and our overall open space facilities for children, including our playgrounds.

Our open spaces are a great opportunity to promote our unique and thriving Merri-bek arts and culture. The Strategy will explore how we can better promote arts and culture in our open space – such as via opportunities for events, artwork, or other activities (such as the Brunswick Music Festival held recently at Gilpin Park, Brunswick, or the Glenroy Music Festival at the Glenroy Community Hub). The strategy will also explore how we can celebrate and promote our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Wurundjeri- Woi-wurrung history, including in future events and open space improvements / additions.