The “Friends of the Royal Exhibition Building & Carlton Gardens” ( FREBCG), together with Fitzroy Residents’ Association (FRA) and CoRBA, have made a submission to Heritage Victoria outlining our objections to the current permit application by The Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show (MIFGS) for use of the Unesco World Heritage Carlton Gardens in March 2019. This is the 23rd time the annual show has taken place in the Gardens, and many random passers-by have observed and commented on the immediate and incremental damage to these once beautiful gardens. Not only this, but MIFGS has never been required to present a business case, nor have they been required to answer questions from community groups.They have recently asked CoM if they might increase their ticket price to $40.00 and CoM have approved, even though CoM gains no benefit from this, despite huge disruption to public amenity (see page8) and more input by CoM officers. The Melbourne Parks & Gardens regulation 1994 stipulates that the Show must be horticultural in content, and the extent to which the latter has morphed into other aspects is quite shocking. They now stage a night time event of music, entertainment, food and fun which closes at 9pm.
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