Suburban split

By Melissa Meehan
SUBURB snobbery could see Keysborough fade away.
The threat comes as a residents’ group puts forward a proposal to distance newer housing estates from the older parts of the suburb that it believes just don’t measure up.
The proposal would lead to almost two-thirds of the suburb, 1383 of 2176 hectares, renamed.
Spokesman for the Hidden Grove Residents Group, Paul Dimascolo, said that the plan to create a new suburb was not meant to divide the community, but to provide a boost for the proposed area.
“The houses we live in don’t represent the area we live in,” Mr Dimascolo said.
“We are trying to separate ourselves without trying to upset anyone.”
At Monday night’s council meeting, City of Greater Dandenong councillors voted for a proposal to rename part of the suburb bounded by Springvale Road, Hutton/Greens Road, Eastlink, Southern Bypass and Cheltenham Road to go out to public comment.
But on Tuesday, councillor Peter Brown said he was concerned that if council agreed to rename part of Keysborough, the remaining area would not have enough residents to warrant its own suburb.
Mr Dimascolo said that the group was formed almost three years ago when members of the community started to look at their quality of life.
“We have been voicing the opinions of our community without trying to create too many headaches,” Mr Dimascolo said.
The group, which speaks on behalf of six new housing estates including Hidden Grove, has asked the City of Greater Dandenong for a suburb name change to “give the area more of a distinction from Keysborough”. He said the new suburb would encapsulate the community values held by those housing estates, and had the numbers to prove it with over 600 signatures on a petition to council.
“We have received positive feedback from the residents,” he said.
“It’s something similar to the Waterways area, between Braeside and Aspendale Gardens.”
But Cr Brown says he had two concerns over the proposal.
“First of all I am concerned that the remaining part of Keysborough will fade away,” he said.
“And then there are the historical and heritage values of Keysborough that need to be taken into consideration.”
Cr Brown said he was also disappointed that residents in the older parts of Keysborough would not be directly contacted by council in relation to the proposal.
“Those residents need to be consulted,” he said.
“If it goes ahead and Keysborough fades away it will affect them too.”
Fellow councillor Jim Memeti said at the meeting that he supported the proposal.
“I met with the residents,” he said.
“It makes a lot of sense.”
The council voted for a 28-day community consultation period, from 17 July to 14 August.
A report by council officers said that the creation of a new suburb should not be undertaken unless there was a high level of demonstrated community support for the proposal.
Keysborough was named after the Keys family, which owned land in the southern part of the current suburb in the 1860s.
The name of the new suburb, if endorsed, has not yet been decided.