Melbourne council invites feedback on smart city tech use

The City of Stonnington in Melbourne is inviting community feedback as it embarks on a smart cities strategy to explore how digital technology, data and innovation can help address current and future challenges.

The City of Stonnington Mayor, Cr Kate Hely, said, “Integrating smart technologies into our operations will increase convenience, improve efficiencies and expand the information available to help make decisions.

“To get us started on the strategy, we want to hear from our community on what they’d like to see prioritised in the rollout,” Cr Hely said.

“I can’t wait to see the ideas that our community comes up with,” Cr Hely added.

“I’m really excited in particular about the opportunities this can create for our retail precincts and high streets.

“Using real-time data on things like visitation will allow Council and our businesses to discover critical information and know what drives economic spend and growth opportunities.

“This will also provide information and data to help everyone make informed decisions in Stonnington — from councillors, to our businesses, residents, community groups, other levels of government and people looking to invest for their future,” Cr Hely said.

The council is already seeing the benefits of some of its pilot projects. This includes: visitation censors in Prahran Square for real-time information on usage of the space; traffic monitoring at six locations on Chapel Street that provide numbers of pedestrians, cyclists, vehicles and heavy vehicles at different times of day; and on-street car parking availability in key locations (trial project).

The council will be holding a community information session on Tuesday, 30 November from 6.30–7.30 pm for people to learn more about the potential of the council’s smart cities strategy, and how other councils have delivered similar strategies and projects.