NEWS DESK
Hotel booze theft
Councils meet and eat on line
arrests lead to charges
Neil Walker neil@baysidenews.com.au
Police patrol
FIVE people were arrested by Mornington police after allegedly stealing alcohol and other property from the Mornington on Tanti Hotel, early Sunday morning last week. Detective Sergeant Jason Hocking, of Somerville CIU, said police will allege alcohol valued at $150 was stolen from the bar area and clothing, a tonneau cover and 12volt air compressor valued at $550 were stolen from a utility in the hotel’s car park, 5am, Sunday 22 July. A Dingley Village man, 26, and a Skye man, 27, were remanded to appear at Frankston Magistrates’ Court last week charged with burglary, theft and theft from a motor vehicle. The results of the case were not known when The News went to press. A Narre Warren man, 33, was bailed to appear at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on the same charges in September. Two women allegedly with the men – a 36-year-old, of Croydon, and a 25-year-old, of Hampton East – were interviewed by police and released pending further inquiries. Detective Hocking said Mornington police were alerted to the robbery after the alarm sounded and were able to watch it unfold on CCTV. He said all the property was recovered.
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire councillors will meet their counterparts from Frankston Council next week at a “working dinner” to chew over their differences in policy over the electrification of the Frankston line to Baxter. The dinner, to be held on Wednesday 9 August at Frankston Football Club, comes after shire councillors in May called on the federal and state governments to recognise the shire “as a major stakeholder”, since talks have mostly been conducted between politicians and Frankston Council. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and state opposition leader Matthew Guy visited Baxter station on 17 July to announce the Liberals, if elected at state and federal level at upcoming elections, will begin the project to build the electric track to Baxter next year. The shire said Baxter — which lies within its municipal boundary – would be an unsuitable terminus for the electric train service and wants the line doubled up and electrified to Hastings. An “advocacy paper” prepared by the shire says moving train stabling and maintenance and car parking “down the line” to Baxter “appears to be primarily to free up land in Frankston for development” (“Brake on Hastings electric train” The News 31/5/18). Making land available at Baxter would require “pushing out the Urban Growth Boundary and encroaching
Line call: Diesel trains to Baxter may be replaced by modern electric models. Picture: Gary Sissons
on the Mornington Peninsula Green Wedge”. State Hastings Liberal MP Neale Burgess last week said electrification and duplication from a single to double rail line to Baxter “is just the first stage of electrifying and duplicating the line through to Stony Point”. “The estimated cost of electrifying and duplicating our line through to Stony Point was in excess of $2 billion and that amount was not immediately available,” Mr Burgess said. “While the whole amount was not available up front there are many benefits of bringing the metro line as far as Baxter to start and then taking it the
rest of the way to Stony Point as stage two. “I won’t be satisfied until we have metro train services that go all the way through to Stony Point and meet the French Island Ferry.” Mr Burgess says the shire’s advocacy paper is “outdated”. “Once the line is electrified to Baxter, residents of Crib Point, Bittern, Hastings, Tyabb, Somerville, Baxter and Langwarrin will for the first time ever be able to take a short drive to a large park ’n’ ride just north of Baxter and catch a train right through to the city without having to change trains at all.
“Commuters will no longer have to catch a diesel train to Frankston and then wait for a connection to the city, they will be able to leave their car in the park ’n’ ride north of Baxter and travel through to the city. “There will be no need to try and find that elusive car park at Frankston station or elsewhere.” Shire councillor David Gill confirmed shire and Frankston councillors will meet next week. "For the first time ever Frankston is willing to discuss the [planned] electrification, even though Baxter station is within the shire," Cr Gill said on Monday. With Keith Platt
Jobs growth as steel exports surge BLUESCOPE is exporting tens of thousands of tonnes of steel to the United States from its Western Port base in a growth surge the company says has helped it create 150 jobs over the past year. Last week 10,000 tonnes of steel was shipped from Hastings to the West Coast port of Longbeach – later to be galvanised or pre-painted for various applications, such as building, general manufacturing or car making. BlueScope is able to sell to the US through its Steelscope joint venture because Australia has, so far, escaped tariffs imposed on other countries’ steel exports by US President Donald Trump. Western Port plant manager Mike Hussey said BlueScope was exporting about 200,000 tonnes a year – a
“significant increase” on previous years. “There’s been a concerted effort by the company to find overseas markets in the wake of the shutdown of the car making industry here,” he said. “We are always on the lookout for alternative markets through our sales and marketing departments, although the domestic market is still our main focus.” Industry and employment minister Ben Carroll said the jobs’ increase highlighted the strength of the state’s steel manufacturing industry. He visited the Western Port plant which produces coated and painted steel products, including Colorbond steel. BlueScope said the state government was using Australian-made steel in major road and rail infrastructure projects.
Ship ahoy: BlueScope last week exported 10,000 tonnes of steel to the United States from the Port of Hastings. Picture: Ebony Elise
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Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News 1 August 2018
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