Why a regional community charter? One Inner Region (with more resources)? One Greater Melbourne Council? Or what?
That was the great debate begun at the tail-end of 1985. Up until then, there had been a loosely-structured consultative type Inner Urban Region, constituting some State Department spokespeople, some local Council officers and/or Councillors, and some community representatives from 8 inner area municipalities, namely: Melbourne, Fitzroy, Collingwood, Richmond, Prahan, St. Kilda, South Melbourne & Port Melbourne.
The original FACS (Family and Community Services) Committee, now called the "Inner Urban Regional Consultative Committee" (IURCC) mainly concerned with welfare matters, had spawned a sub-committee the "Inner Urban Region Planning Committee" (IURPC) mainly concerned with integration of physical, economic and social planning.