‘Very backwards’: Christmas lights cancellation sparks Bayside council stoush

Commenters said the council should be “ashamed”.

Organiser Michael Eather puts on the display at his mother Glennis’s Grange Road home. Glennis was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015.

He explained the council wanted a local survey to be done before they went ahead with “no standing” signage to help with the event’s traffic management this year.

However, the council never went ahead with the survey, and insisted the organisers get traffic management companies on board and all their detailed plans organised first, he said.

“So it was very backwards,” Eather told The Age.

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“A traffic management consultant I spoke with had the same opinion, [saying], ‘I need to know if changed traffic conditions in certain areas are happening or not before we can really proceed, and give you a true and accurate traffic map, and obviously, our costings associated with it’.”

The Eathers spoke to neighbours, who “overwhelmingly” supported the signage plan, Eather said. Council gave them an alternate option to pay traffic companies to put out all bollards — rather than outsource handling of just parts of the traffic plan — he said.

“It would be double, if not triple [what we have previously paid] to do it all through a company, and it was just not feasible by that point, which is really sad,” Eather said, noting they did not have the same resources as in previous years.

“I’ve been hopeful that [the council] would step up and try and help us a bit more.”

Bayside City Council said it, too, was disappointed the Christmas display would not go ahead.

Its officers worked with organisers for several months to provide a safe and fun event for the community, director of environment, recreation and infrastructure Jill Colson said.

“This year, the organiser also proposed changes to parking restrictions along Grange Road that required consultation with neighbours,” Colson said in a statement.

“The need for the [traffic management] plan and consultation was communicated to the organisers on multiple occasions over an extended period of time however they have chosen not to supply the necessary information to allow this to occur.

“Events such as the Grange Road Christmas lights bring wonderful benefits to our community and council’s role is to ensure they are conducted safely and not impact the amenity of neighbours.”

The council supported the event for many years and would continue to assist the organisers where required, Colson said.

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