ALPHINGTON scouts are calling on the community to help them raise funds to raise the roof.

The 1st Alphington Scout Group, which last year celebrated its 100th year, is having a designers and makers market to raise money to contribute to the $200,000 renovation its beloved hall requires.

Parent committee chairman Geoff Glynn said urgent repairs were required to save the hall, which had sections of its roof collapsing.

He said little work had been done the since families of workers at Amcor paper mill built it in the early 1900s.

“The building has great character and it’s worth spending money on it to fix it up and pass on a legacy to the next generation of users,” Mr Glynn said.

“We’ve got a five-year plan in place and we need $200,000 to carry it out.”

Yarra Council committed $15,000 from its 2011/2012 budget to the project and promised a further $15,000 in each of the next two years.

Mr Glynn said Scouts Victoria would contribute, but the Alphington group would still need to raise about $70,000.

While some scout groups are reporting declining memberships, 1st Alphington is a strong unisex group boasting more than 40 members.

“The kids do some fantastic activities like cross country skiing,” Mr Glynn said.

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MELBURNIANS will have less room to kick the footy, walk the dog or take personal training sessions in coming years as population pressure squeezes the city’s cherished public open spaces.

A ground-breaking report released today by the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council warns that public open space, such as local parks, gardens and public golf courses will have to cater for communities swelling by more than 1500 new residents a week.

”Public open space per capita is likely to decrease over time for almost all municipalities,” the report concluded. It looked at 29 metropolitan councils.

Population growth in areas such as Bayside, Brimbank, Glen Eira and Moonee Valley had already exceeded population projections for 2016, the report noted. ”The community perceives that Melbourne’s increasing population will result in a loss of quantity and quality of public open space,” the report commissioned by the state government found.

”Without the retention and creation of public open space on both public land and local council land, public open space per capita will decrease over time for almost all municipalities in the investigation area.”

The report recommends the Baillieu government prepare a ”metropolitan open space policy and strategy that provides a long-term plan for public open space” and maintains ”an open space inventory” to keep track of open space.

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You’ll have to go to Paris to see it and you can only skate it if you’re a professional.

The PAS House was designed so that everything on the inside, from the walls to the furniture, can be skated on.

It’s a curvy indoor playground where you can get air in the lounge, carve your way over the kitchen and grind along bench tops, and nobody will tell you to go and play outside.

The Paris display of the PAS House is actually only a full-scale model of one room of the house. The good news, for the professionals, is that it’s all skateable.

The professionals have been called in to put the design to the test. If all goes well, the real thing will be built on the top of the Las Flores Canyon in Malibu, California.

The man behind the design, Pierre-André Senizergues, is described as a "super-rich skateboarding GOD" by TMZ. He has some serious skating cred from years as a world-class professional during the 80s.

He’s also made a fortune from skate shoes, clothes and accessories. His latest venture is skateboard-inspired furniture which you can see in the pictures from the Paris display.

The world-first live-in designer skate ramp should be ready for Senizergues to move into some time in 1212.

FITZROY is warming people’s heads and hearts with a quirky show of more than 300 beanies.

Now in its 11th year, the Artisan Books Beanie Exhibition features beanies from all over Australia.

A self-confessed beanie fanatic, Artisan Books owner Dan Ablethorpe said the exhibition always gets people smiling.

“The whole place is awash with colour,” Mr Ablethorpe said.

“Everyone loves a good beanie and at this time of the year they go down very well.”

He said the beanies on display were very creative and covered a wide range of knitting techniques, styles and patterns.

Penny O’Neill – who has been making beanies for 25 years and has 40 on display – said she used freeform crochet to make “wild and colourful” creations. She said she was excited to see Melburnians celebrate the beanie.

“It’s not just a humble knitted hat,” she said. “It’s a piece of art, it’s quirky, and no two are alike.”

Artisan Books Beanie Exhibition, 159 Gertrude St, Fitzroy, until July 30. Details: artisan.com.au

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