A small reserve in Lewis Court, Sunshine West. Brimbank Council wants to sell it, along with at least five others like it. Credit:Jason South Since 2011, the council has sold two parks for more than $700,000, and a third reserve originally earmarked for open space sold for $7 million last week. Among those to be sold is a reserve in McCourbrie Avenue, Sunshine West, which links three streets. The council said in a report it should not be retained at all as a park. Laurence Provencher and her partner bought their home four years ago because it was near this park. "We figured eventually the council would invest in the park. We didn't think for a minute they would sell it," said the 29-year-old, who wants her 10-month-old to be able to one day play in it.

But the council has deemed the reserve "surplus to community needs", saying another major park is close by. Ms Provencher and her neighbours disagree, saying the park is used as an informal recreational space, and as a safe place for children to play close to homes. A block of land in Furlong Road, Cairnlea. Brimbank Council sold it last week for $7 million. It was originally planned to be a town centre. Credit:Jason South She said that, while this park and the others to be sold did not look like much now, they could easily be made attractive. "They will make a money grab now but in 20 years' time when the population has increased, they'll have to buy places like it," she said. Residents around the McCourbrie Avenue park have 400 gathered objections to the sale plan, and their Sunshine West Action Group has said it will put caravans and tents on the reserve as a blockade if their opposition to the sale does not succeed. Residents who live near this McCoubrie Avenue reserve in Sunshine West want Brimbank Council to dump its plan to sell the park. Credit:Jason South

Another reserve up for sale is in on the market for The council tried to offload 14 of its reserves four years ago, after it launched its Creating Better Parks policy. This parcel of land in Zagreb Court, Keilor Park, is now on the market, with agent Douglas Kay asking $720,000+ for it. Credit:Jason South It wanted to establish 25 high-quality suburban parks, and lesser neighbourhood reserves so that every resident was within a five-minute walk of one. To help the council's finances, it planned to sell off the least valuable reserves.

A reserve in Marchant Cres, Sunshine West. Brimbank Council plans to sell it and at least five others like it. Credit:Jason South But in the face of vocal pockets of opposition from residents the council dropped the park sales plan. Now, instead of announcing another major sale of reserves, it is tackling the sales plan less aggressively. The council - run since by administrators after the sacking of councillors in 2009 - has raised the Andrews government's plan to cap rate rises as a reason for the move.

The proceeds of the land sales would go into the council's general revenue, he said, and this would help improve parks. He said that, in the past five years, the council had decided to sell a total of nine parcels of land, totalling almost four hectares of land. Over the same period it had bought 11.6 hectares of land for the community to use, he said. The council still wanted to see a park within 500 metres of every resident in Brimbank, Mr Younis said. And he said that all land sales had to go before the three commissioners that will run the municipality until next October. The most recent sale of public land by the council was at 93 Furlong Road in Cairnlea, which was identified at the turn of the century as an open space for the area. It never became that, and has now been sold by the council for $7 million. Another little used piece of council land that is designated a "reserve for municipal purposes" is Marchant Crescent, in Sunshine. A council report said that letters sent to residents nearby had resulted in no submissions opposing its sale. The land has been vacant since 1986.

Lewis Court in Sunshine West also has a pocket park. The 1500-square-metre reserve has sat vacant since 1973, and a council report also notes that no residents objected to its sale following a notice being published in a local paper. Also to be sold is a small 600-square-metre park in Cobb Junction, Sydenham. It is surrounded by houses and due to a lack of visibility from the street make it, the council said, inappropriate for a park.

The land at 541-547 Melton Highway, Sydenham, is also to be sold. It once housed the Sydenham Public Hall, transported to the site in the 1930s. But the building fell into disrepair and the council acquired the land in 1976 for $1. It was demolished in the early 1990s, and the site has remained vacant since. Brimbank argues the reserve has no connectivity with any other open space, or activity centre, and so should be sold as the area is already well serviced by parks. The planned sales of the parks and reserves stands in stark contrast to what Stonnington Council is planning: placing an overlay on 450 properties across its municipality to turn into parks over the next 20 years. Stonnington's 20-year strategy to create more parks will see property purchased where there are shortages across the council's areas. The plan includes turning properties into parks in some of the city's most exclusive addresses in South Yarra, Toorak, Armadale, Glen Iris, Prahran and Malvern.