THE City of Whittlesea resolved to organise its business case for a new Youth Hub, resolving to nominate a space south of the Civic Centre nearby to be the preferred site.
Exhaustive work from council officers found four points to recommend to council, approving the Civic Centre South as the preferred site through the business case, allocating $4-6 million through the 2026-27, 2027-28 and 2028-29 budget allocation for design and deliver, continue advocating to the Victorian Government for external funding to support delivery and use the Youth Hub as a hub-and-spoke service model, with added spoke locations activating in due course.
This came after endorsing the proposal for a business case in December last year, which advocated for the potential of four sites across Epping and South Morang for its new Youth Hub.
In moving for the motion, Councillor Alan Lenberg said the continued support from the State Government was needed.
“I think that this is an amazing report on the Youth Hub, and it is exactly what council fed back to the executives,” he said.
“It’s very important that we do build this Youth Hub, but I would also like to make sure that (Member for Mill Park) Lily D’Ambrosio and (Member for Thomastown) Bronwyn Halfpenny get their hands deep in their pockets, because, obviously, it’s gone up from looking at $4 million up to about $6 million.”
Cr Aidan McLindon, in seconding the motion, outlined his excitement for a dedicated youth centre.
“This always excites me when we do things for the youth. It’s part of the bread and butter of local government,” he said.
“If the youth development team do nothing else this year, they’ve achieved more than enough, although the CEO, I’m sure, will keep them working on another project.
“These options that were put before us, I think, is the most sensible one going forward. It’s an asset not a liability. I do believe that down the track, we will be forever grateful we did that.
“I do also resonate and echo the point that we do need to continue to lobby the state government, because as I say, the idle time is linked to crime and we have seen an increase across the state, a little bit locally, but I think we do need to really get the state to dig deep as well, so that we can make sure that this is a huge success as I’m sure it will be.
“I look forward to it opening and everybody’s welcome.”