Latest update – July 2025

On Monday 14 July, Councillors reviewed the community's feedback on the revised Road Materials Policy at a public Council meeting. There were 7 community members who shared their views on the policy at the public meeting.

After hearing these contributions and the community's feedback, Councillors deferred their decision to allow more time to carefully consider the feedback, including the approach to bluestone kerbs and gutters.

A revised draft of the policy is expected to be presented to Councillors for adoption at a public Council meeting by September 2025. We’ll update this page as soon as the meeting date is confirmed.

Summary of the policy

Boroondara’s ageing road network means many of our roads and laneways need rebuilding. Choosing the right materials is essential to keep them safe, long-lasting and usable for everyone.

To guide our repair work, we've developed the Road Materials Policy. It sets a consistent approach for selecting materials when we build or upgrade roads, helping us make decisions that reflect our community's values and practical needs.

The policy balances our key priorities:

• using our limited bluestone supply carefully
• protecting the unique character and heritage of our neighbourhoods
• managing the cost of road upgrades and maintenance responsibly.

Community consultation

In March and April 2024, we invited the community to share their thoughts on the draft policy. We wanted to understand your views on:

• our proposed new approach for determining the materials we use when maintaining and renewing concrete roads
• the new policy in general.

Thank you to everyone who shared their feedback. Over 1,200 people visited this page during consultation, and we received 155 responses through the survey and written submissions.

How we promoted the consultation

• Email alert to people signed up to this website, whose interests match this topic
• Social media posts on Council’s Facebook and Instagram accounts
• Fortnightly Feed email newsletter to around 35,000 community members
• With stakeholder groups including:
  • Boroondara Heritage Group
  • Boroondara Residents' Action Group
  • Boroondara Bicycle User Group
  • Department of Transport and Planning
  • Local State and Federal Members of Parliament
  • Postcards across all Boroondara libraries.

Who participated in the consultation and how?

• 126 people took part in the survey
• 6 people joined the 2 walks to discuss bluestone kerb and channels, and concrete roads
• 29 sent a written submission to us.

Of those who participated in the survey:

• the majority live in Camberwell (22%), Hawthorn (18%) and Kew (9%), with 2% live outside Boroondara. People from all suburbs in Boroondara participated.
• 51% of respondents are men
• the age groups we heard from most are 35 to 49 years (23%) and 60 to 69 years (21%). People from all age groups participated.

Petitions

We received an electronic petition with 436 signatures:

• 57 signatories from Boroondara
• 282 from other Victorian postcodes
• 97 from outside Victoria.

We received a written petition with 60 signatures:

• 57 signatories from Boroondara
• 3 from other Victorian postcodes.

Next steps

An updated version of the draft policy will be presented to Councillors at an upcoming public meeting for their consideration.

Council aims to publish the meeting date, agenda and draft policy on our website 10 days before the meeting.