Maribyrnong mayor Grant Miles says a trip to colleges in North America will help turn Footscray into Australia’s university town.
Maribyrnong council and Victoria University have partnered on the project to generate investment and employment in Footscray and Melbourne’s west.
The council recently endorsed the Footscray University Town Business Plan and approved an eight-day overseas “benchmarking exercise”.
Mayor Grant Miles, deputy mayor Nam Quach and council manager Nigel Higgins will visit colleges in the US and Canada next month on a trip funded from the council’s $100,000 commitment to rejuvenating Footscray as a university town.
The delegates will visit universities in San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver and Columbia.
Cr Miles said the council’s delegates will open doors that would have been closed to
VU participants.
“They can get access to people they wouldn’t normally be able to access and can get that local government point of view,” he said.
“We have an extremely frugal council and are tight with expenses.”
Cr Quach said the project was a chance to add another layer of personality to Footscray.
“The last thing we want to see is for Footscray to become full of high-rise towers and a dormitory city where people just come to eat and sleep,” he said. Cr Michael Clarke said Footscray could be the next Cambridge or Oxford, while Cr Sarah Carter said the trip was needed to find out what would work.
VU vice-chancellor Peter Dawkins said the project would better connect staff and students with Footscray.
“We believe these activities are the first steps to a ripple effect of improved educational facilities and revitalised businesses in Footscray, which will have profound economic and cultural benefits for greater western Melbourne.”
