Aero club loses bid for $124,000 legal costs Keith Platt keith@baysidenews.com.au
Stolen mascot: Giselle O’Connor from the Kings Creek Hotel says the pub’s owners are distraught at the recent theft of its popular horse mascot. Picture: Gary Sissons
Microchip may fix ‘horse’ sale THE four-legged mascot of Kings Creek Hotel in Hastings has legged it again, and the distraught owners are offering a $500 voucher for its return. The life-size fibreglass horse has stood out the front of the hotel for many years, attracting the admiring eyes of thousands of passersby. However, this is not the first time the wayward nag has gone missing,
with thieves making off with it several years ago. On that occasion police were quick to follow the trail and the horse was soon returned. The Alderson family, which owns the pub, are at a loss as to the horse’s whereabouts this time, and its members are hoping publicity and a generous venue voucher will make the horse thieves think twice.
Staff member Giselle O’Connor said the family was hoping someone in the community knew what happened to the mascot, and it can be safely returned. The horse is microchipped and will easily be traced if there are attempts to sell it. Anyone with information should phone the hotel on 5979 2989.
PENINSULA Aero Club has failed in a bid to force Mornington Peninsula Shire Council and several Tyabb residents to pay nearly $124,000 in legal costs. The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal last month ruled that PAC and Westernport Airfield Pty Ltd could not claim costs as they were not “substantially successful” in their dispute with council over: the description of the use of the land as an ‘airfield’ or ‘airport’; the use of the east-west runway; the total number of take-offs and landings of aircraft with an all-up weight of between 4,500 and 12,500 pounds; and the prohibition on night landings and take-offs (“Aero club given clean air to operate” The News 12/10/22). “Except for the declarations with respect to the use of the land as an airport and the east-west runway, the applicants were not successful with respect to the total number of takeoffs and landings in one day nor their interpretation of the term ‘night’,” VCAT deputy president Teresa Bisucci and senior member Rachel Naylor found. The tribunal members said the “complex” proceedings fitted the “high bar” required for the VCAT to not award costs.
The proceedings had involved: detailed documentary material; a plethora of permits with a variety of contradictory conditions requiring interpretation to enable these permits to be read together harmoniously; complex and detailed facts from the mid-1960s; and extensive lay evidence from many witnesses. “The nature of this proceeding arose because of differing interpretations of the permits and historical documents by the parties to the proceeding,” the members wrote in their 6 March determination to not award the costs sought by the PAC and Westernport Airfield. “The interpretation included how the permits work together and the permissions given as the permits were issued over decades under various and differing planning scheme provisions. “As such we are satisfied that the presumption that a successful party is entitled to an order … for the reimbursement of fees is displaced. Accordingly, we refuse to make any order for the reimbursement of fees.” The shire and PAC have a long running history of litigation and hearings at VCAT. In late 2022 the shire controversially gave the club $350,000 (“‘Secretive’ $350,000 payout to aero club” The News 26/10/22).
Frankston Times
18 April 2023
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