Solving an Urban Issue in Ballarat. ISSUE: Changing the Civic Hall. PREPARED BY: Angelo Litras 8A

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1 Year 8 Humanities Assessment Task Solving an Urban Issue in Ballarat ISSUE: Changing the Civic Hall PREPARED BY: Angelo Litras 8A

1. Identification of the Urban Issue History of the Civic Hall Ballarat The Civic Hall in Ballarat has sat vacant and unused for over 10 years now and people are starting to wonder if we actually

2 1. Identification of the Urban Issue History of the Civic Hall Ballarat The Civic Hall in Ballarat has sat vacant and unused for over 10 years now and people are starting to wonder if we actually need it anymore. During the s, it was used for official occasions. During its opening year in 1956 the hall was a venue for celebrations during the Summer Olympics due to the rowing and kayaking events being hosted by Ballarat. In the 1960s, two sculptural bronze statues were added to the site, a rare depiction of William Shakespeare as an actor/director by Andor Meszaras (1960), and Sir Walter Scott by Stanley Hammond (1961).For decades it was the premier social venue in Ballarat, a venue for numerous concerts, balls, dances and graduations. It was also used for school examinations and exhibitions. In 1999, the hall played an important role as the venue for the launch of the Australian Labor Party s election campaign. Its last use was as a bingo hall for over two decades. In 2002, the hall was permanently closed with windows and doors boarded up and began a period of neglect. In May 2010, The Courier ran a spread on rumours of homeless squatters at Civic Hall and since then there have been different proposals for what to do with the Civic Hall. Some groups think it should be demolished, some people think it should be office space for the Council, some people think it should be art gallery space. This problem needs to be addressed because there is no point in having a hall if it isn t being used for any purposes. The choices are; take it down and build a new building; or just re furbish the old one. Various ideas have formed over these past years and the citizens of Ballarat are complaining to the council because the council can t decide and take leadership. If this issue was addressed and the Civic Hall was turned into something like a performing art centre or a child youth centre then this would greatly benefit the community and would please a lot of people. As you can see in this photo here the Civic Hall is very plain and dull looking with no excitement to it. This hall could become one of the best features in Ballarat if it was addressed properly. If the Council listened to the citizens ideas then they could provide the people with a much needed new resource.

3 This is where the Civic Hall is located on a small proportion of a map of Ballarat. It is right next to the City Library which would mean that if the Civic Hall was made into a recreational centre or a youth centre then people would be able to have a short walk down the street and then enter a quiet library.

4 2. Collection of Statistics In 2012 Council decided to demolish the Civic Hall for a $40 million Council office block. An outraged community forced it to abandon this plan after a Morgan Poll found that 72% wanted to retain, restore and reuse the Civic Hall building for community purposes. Another Council-funded consultancy by The Village Well found that most people wanted to see the Civic Hall restored and adapted for reuse. This is the Morgan poll s result Bar graph of Civic hall poll Demolish Reuse, Refirbish Out of a survey conducted of Ballarat Grammar year 8a s 30% said that it should be ripped down and 70% said to refurnish it. This is 8a s result 8a's Class Poll Result Demolish Reuse, Refurbish What this data shows us is that a large percentage of the community still thinks the building is significant and should be reserved but many more both young and old think a change is needed

5 3. Solution to the Issue My solution is that the Ballarat council should look at the needs of the city and hear what the people are saying. Young people in Ballarat aged have limited spaces to go, to hang out or to entertain themselves so they cause trouble in public areas like the mall and Central Square. Acts of vandalizing and other antisocial behavior. They live on the streets and vandalize properties. This problem also needs to be addressed so if the council was able to build a youth centre then that would not only address the problem about the Civic Hall but I would also address the problem about young people causing trouble. The soup bus is already there and then there is also the skate park next to it. The council could keep the statues and the front section of the Hall and create a gallery space full of pictures and memories to keep its history, but then create a youth centre filled with activities, help lines and other useful programs for young people. There would also be a bridge connecting to the library so the youths could go to the library if they want This solution would fix the problem because It would stop the amount of people complaining about the Civic hall being unused and the people who are complaining about young children vandalizing places and causing trouble in public places. My solution would greatly help the community because there would be a decrease in street violence and bad behavior in young people. Having a youth centre instead of an unused building would greatly help the community. 4. Implications to consider The Civic place is the only place at the moment in Ballarat that has been debated this much about. This would be a great space to do my project because it would solve the problem that has causing a lot of trouble for nearly ten years. Because it would become such I big centre for youths the amount of young people there might cause a problem with rubbish. They might make sure they put their rubbish in bins for the first few weeks but after that I think that s some of the older kids might start to get a bit careless and they might start littering and not putting their rubbish in its respectful place. There might also be a problem with too much graffiti. Even though there is a particular space where they can make art and graffiti there is a chance that they might use it for the wrong purpose and they might start to graffiti and vandalize properties.

6 5. Cost The average cost to make my solution happen would be 4.7 million for the Footbridge Around about 2,652 for the Garffiti brick wall Around about 500,000 for the interior. Including Electrical and wall building. This adds up to a good 5.2 million dollars. I found out the cost for the footbridge by searching up how much some footbridges cost and then found out its length and then divided it so we found out how much it costs per metre. Then we multiplied the length of the footbridge which is around about 36 metres by the cost of a metre and it came up as 4.5 million dollars. For the Graffiti wall I found out the length of an average sized brick and then divided the length of the wall which is 26 metres long and that was how many bricks I needed to make one layer. Then multiplied that by twenty so my wall is 20 bricks high and then we got the answer of 2,652 dollars. There wasn t really any major problems with the interior design. The major of the cost came from the electrical and plumbing and that was what really buffed it up. And that came to around about 500,000 dollars.

Binley Woods Parish Plan - Analysis of Main Survey Responses Section D1 Sports Activities & Play Equipment

Binley Woods Parish Plan - Analysis of Main Survey Responses Section D1 Sports Activities & Play Equipment Question D1: How often do you use the following? Binley Woods Parish Plan Main Questionnaire 1