Katrina Humphrey - Speech at Town Meeting

INFORMATION ABOUT MCDONALDS IN RYE
Firstly, let me pass on some of the information I have gathered through hours of research, phone calls, discussions and talking to people ‘in the know’. McDonalds and Hungry Jacks are both looking at opening restaurants in Rye. Hungry Jacks is proposing to open next to Peninsula Surf Centre, near the Safeway supermarket, and more disturbingly McDonalds is eyeing off the beautiful old houses on the cnr of Dundas Street and Point Nepean Road, the vacant block of land being sold with these properties and the house on Dundas next to the police station.

Now it is important to remember that these are just ‘proposed sites’, no plans have yet been lodged with council.

The site proposed for McDonalds is zoned Residential Zone 1. Which sounds promising, however, there is a clause in the zoning that states, basically, that for a ‘convenience restaurant’ if it borders a main road and commercial premises they do not need apply for planning amendments. This site meets all those requirements. There is a positive note to that. It does mean that WHEN, we win this battle with McDonalds, we are not likely to have to start again to save the homes from a petrol station or the like.

McDonalds HAS confirmed that they are ‘looking at Rye’, which in itself is a disturbing fact. They use a computer programme that calculates the next prime site for their restaurants, other businesses see that McDonalds is opening and join the fray. It is called ‘synergistic marketing’ and it could mean an influx of multinational fast food restaurants entering the Rye foreshore. Hungry Jacks is very close to submitting plans to council – possibly within the month.

WHY MEET NOW
Now I know it seems crazy to be meeting now, at such an early stage of the game before there have even been plans submitted, but there is logic to this. Most importantly we need to get organised. This is a HUGE fight, one we can win, but not without enormous effort. We need to be ready to go if plans hit the decision makers desk at the shire. But how fantastic would it be if we could nip this issue in the bud and stop it before it ever got that far. Advice I have received is that many a fight has been lost simply because it was begun too late.

McDonalds will and has been talking to the shire in regards to the opening of their stores. We should be doing the same. We need to be rallying the troops and letting the people elected to make decisions for us know exactly what we think.

REASONS FOR COMPLAINTS
As far as I can see, it will be far harder to find reasons to want a McDonalds, but we do need a logical approach. There are many reasons to be concerned such as the enormous amount of rubbish generated. On average a McDonalds Restaurant produces 125kg of rubbish per day. A drive thru produces 99kg – 153kg. How much of that ends up recycled? Less than 50% CAN be recycled – that figure is not how much WILL be – I cant find a statistic for that. I do know that in England a survey was done of the rubbish on the streets of their 10 largest cities, and 29% of it (the largest figure) was from McDonalds. Not only is that rubbish found directly around the restaurants, but a court case in America states complaints from residents who live over two blocks from the Maccas, but near convenient parking. McDonalds customers go through the drive thru, park their cars in the parking bays, eat their food on the front steps of the residents houses, even use these steps as bathrooms, then leave all the mess behind. So basically no one is immune from the rubbish. It WILL end up on our streets, on our beaches, in our front gardens and in our land fill. One place it is NOT likely is in our recycling.

Obviously the houses near by will be the greatest effected. The homes on Pt Nepean Road will certainly loose their prestige – I mean who wants to live next to a McDonalds. Think of the residents on Elgan Avenue, the first left off the foreshore from the proposed site. Here, as well as Maori Street will become a thorough fare for people coming out of the drive thru and wanting to return to either Dundas Street or Melbourne Road. These streets will be affected by the rubbish, noise, the traffic and most likely a drop in property prices as well.

Why do people live in Rye? Because they love the small town, beach lifestyle of the area. There are all the conveniences you need if you are willing to drive anywhere up to 20 minutes away, but we in Rye currently still exist as an escape from what the city has too offer. I personally want it to stay this way. Yes it has its problems, doesn’t everywhere, but a McDonalds or Hungry Jacks will only magnify them.

Another area of concern is the traffic on both Dundas and Pt Nepean Road, which lets face it, is cactus through most of summer anyway, without adding a busy restaurant on the corner. The historical signifigance of the site being proposed is immense. The health issues that having a McDonalds not only in our town, but so close to our school and kinder will raise, and the change to the general ambience of the area.

Lets also think of the Rye traders. Places that survive because of tradies support will be suffering greatly, as will the small family owned, local fast food restaurants along the strip. If they go, how will Rye survive at all?

Now the arguments ‘for’ seem to be about employment and bringing new people to the area. But having spoken to many townspeople, it is just more of the same kind of hospitality work that is on offer already (in fact probably not as good). We do need to take these arguments seriously though. They will need to be answered in far more detail and with research to back up the claims.

There is also talk that these fast food giants will bring people to the town. As far as tourists go, I don’t know of anyone who goes on a beachside holiday and makes the decision based on a Maccas on the corner. As for bringing locals to the foreshore township, well maybe it will, but will it bring them into the existing stores, or will it just have them moving away from the fish and chip shop and into the drive-thru, not even getting out of the car long enough to buy a paper.

These are just a few key points that we need to keep in mind when we are finalizing a protest campaign to stop this inappropriate development.

Now that we have heard a range of reasons to take on this fight, and the positive result we could have at the end, the question that begs to be asked is…

SO WHO ARE WE REALLY FIGHTING ANYWAY?
Now, as far as I see it, there are two battles we are having to face. The first, fairly obviously, is the inappropriate development and the fast food juggernaut heading our way. The other, possibly more sinister and certainly more confronting is the “No way can we win against McDonalds”, the “What can we do?” the “McDonalds has all the money – they always win” and of course the “Yeh, I support you, but I’m just too busy”. But my personal favourite – “Oh. Really. Good luck with that”. And that gem, “Hey, You need to….”.

It is easy to tell, simply by the fact that you are here, that there is no one of that persuasion in our midst, but believe me, we will run into it a lot.

This fight can be won, and we are certainly way ahead of the game because of tonight alone. Other towns have been the ‘David’ that have beaten the ‘Corporate’ Golliath, let Rye stand amongst them.

SO, WHAT CAN WE DO?
Well our first step is to rally the troops. A pretty good effort so far I’d say. There are well over 300 people receiving my emails, and those are just the ones I know about. Everyday I am receiving a response from someone who has seen one “forwarded from…and… through… to…and then etc etc”.

Our message is also being forwarded on to local environment groups, Melbourne development groups, has been picked up by the local Leader and Mail newspapers and radio stations. And this is just the beginning.

We have the support of Martin Dixon, State Member for Nepean, Shadow Minister for Education. He has sent through his apologies for being unable to attend tonight and this statement that he wished to be read out,

“As a resident of rye I share the concerns of those attending this meeting.
If either proposal of construction of Hungry Jacks or McDonalds goes ahead it will have a negative effect on local take away and food outlets. I am also concerned about the precedent of the retail strip being extended west of Dundas Streeet.

In the meantime, my role is to ensure that the proper planning processes take place, giving locals ample notice and opportunity to lodge their objection.

Congratulations to all those involved in organising this meeting and I repeat, my offer to assist in any way you would like assistance”

We have also received the support of Greg Hunt, Federal Minister for Flinders, Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Water. He has stated that he will happily follow up with approaches to the Shire and State indicating that he feels that major fast food outlets in the suburb of Rye would be an example of inappropriate development.

He recommends that there be community opposition to the opening of major fast food outlets in the town and, most importantly, that we urge council to make a formal objection and request to McDonalds and Hungry Jacks and other fast food outlets to re-think Rye as a suitable location.

So, as a first step, we need to write letters, and lots of them!!!!!

So, onto the housekeeping. I have already mentioned that apathy is one of our big hurdles. I am certainly not pointing any fingers, no one has the time to do everything they plan to. So, as a group we need to make the letter writing campaign as easy for people as possible.

You will see around the room, and also in the entrance hallway tables set up and full of paperwork. Scary thought I know, but it is soooo easy.

On each of these tables you will find formal letters of complaint already written and addressed to the shire. Copies of these letters will also be sent to McDonalds, Hungry Jacks and Martin Dixon. There are several letters to choose from, some of them stating a general concern, others are based on more specific problems, such as rubbish, street appeal, traffic and so on. All we need you to do is write your name and address on the top right hand corner of the page and sign the bottom. Everything else will be done for you.

Now, many of you may still want to write your own letter of complaint, and that is strongly encouraged. It is the hope that 1000s of letters will be received by the shire in support of our campaign. I will ask that when you send your letter, also send a copy to me, preferably via email. I would then like to link it to the blog (name and addresses removed of course) so others can either use your letter as motivation, or for those that are not as comfortable at letter writing, simply attach their names and addresses to it and then they can send it. I think this is the only way we will receive the numbers we need.

The final piece of housekeeping is in regards to support you can offer. I am being inundated with offers of help. A big thank you to everyone for that, it really has been wonderful. But this is only the beginning of the battle. We need lots of support in lots of different ways. So please fill out your name and the things you think you can offer us. Everything from legal advice to photocopying and a myriad of things in between is needed. Please volunteer to help us as much as you can.

COMMITTEE
As I’m sure is pretty obvious, I can’t do this all on my own. “Pack lunches for the kids”. Tick. “Take on a multinational fast food giant and win”. Tick. “Return the books to the library”. Tick. It’s just not the way it is going to work. And that is why I am going to mention that swear word starting with ‘C’ – cover your ears kids. Committee.

Now I, just like everyone else starts to twitch at the thought of it, but I truly believe that a committee will be able to steer this campaign in the right direction, without me having a nervous breakdown and my children being removed by Department of Children Services.

So, if you are willing to join, please just let Lisa, Louise, Michelle, or myself know. We will all be behind the various information desks.

For those of you who don’t think you can make that commitment but still want to be involved, please do not fret, there will be plenty for you to do.

The troops will be rallied again soon!!!!

One final thing, as you can imagine, McDonalds and Hungry Jacks spare change is slightly more impressive than what I can find down the back of the couch. All ready expenses associated with this campaign are clogging up my credit card, which unfortunately, is NOT limitless. Beside the hire of the hall, there are all the printing, postage and administrative costs – and this is just the beginning

You will see tins at the various tables around the hall, you are invited, but by no means required, to give a small donation to the campaign. Please feel assured that all money will be spent on this campaign.

Thank you all for your support and good ideas. Thank you to all who have taken the time and effort to get involved already, those who dealt with the stage fright to stand up and talk and thank you for sharing your passionate opposition to this fast food juggernaut with others.

And the hugest thank you in the world to Michelle Muter (who, like me, I think has some serious ‘family time’ owing to her). Michelle jumped in and got her feet well and truly soaked (you will stop and think next time before you say “what can I do?” to me). Michelle you are a STAR!!!!!

And on that note, hang around, sign our letters, have a good night and safe trip home through our lovely town.