NEWS DESK
Staff slam leadership Continued from page 1 In 2004, then SA state MP Bob Sneath slammed “the leadership, management and governance of the Naracoorte Lucindale Council” amid the resignation of several senior council officers over a 12-month period. When asked last week about Mr Sneath’s comments, made under parliamentary privilege, Mr Hovenden said he and Mr Sneath had not agreed on several matters. Mr Sneath mentioned “bullying and intimidation” during his SA parliamentary speech. “That was a long time ago and an interesting council,” Mr Hovenden said last week. “No-one accused me personally of bullying them. “Anyone can say anything under parliamentary privilege.” Some comments by Frankston Council staff in the Insync survey mentioned “bullying”, but Mr Hovenden played down suggestions of any culture of bullying at council. “I think bullying is perhaps not the proper word and is sometimes used when a decision is made and someone doesn’t agree with something,” he said. The CEO said he is focusing on council staff “working more cohesively” and said employees are asking for “greater communication with the CEO” amid a restructured divisional approach at Frankston. The Times revealed in 2015 there had been 36 allegations of bullying at council within the previous two years and Mr Hovenden at the time confirmed, after a freedom of information request was lodged, that five cases of bullying at council were “either fully
Land ‘lost’ in Baxter line Keith Platt keith@baysidenews.com.au
Frankston Council CEO Dennis Hovenden
or partially proven”. Mr Hovenden said there had been no accusations “ as far as I know” of bullying at Swan Hill Rural City Council during his 2007-2012 tenure as CEO in Swan Hill. When Mr Hovenden resigned in Swan Hill, then-mayor John Katis thanked the departing CEO for his “passion, leadership and commitment to council” and expressed disappointment at his decision to leave for Frankston. “I believe Swan Hill has been a stepping stone for him and I feel proud to say that,” Cr Katis told Swan Hill newspaper The Guardian in September 2012. Mr Hovenden said he understands staff at Frankston Council feel under pressure since “workloads have risen” in recent times and he has been speaking to staff about the survey results. The Times has asked the CEO to provide figures on any bullying allegations at council since June 2015.
THE state and federal Liberals’ pledge to spend $450 million electrifying the Frankston line to Baxter may come at the cost of green wedge land in Baxter. 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 next year. Mornington Peninsula Shire Council in May announced it wanted the line electrified beyond Baxter to Hastings. The shire said Baxter — which lies within its municipal boundary – would be an unsuitable terminus for the electric train service. 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”. Making land available at Baxter would require “pushing out the Urban Growth Boundary and encroaching on the Mornington Peninsula Green Wedge”. “Electrification would offer minimal benefit to residents of the Mornington Peninsula, at an unacceptable cost,” the shire has stated in a letter to the state and federal governments. At that stage the shire, which felt it had been left out of the planning to electrify the line, said it was “imperative” that it be included in any future discussions (“Shire off line over train” The Times 21/5/18).
State Hastings 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,
Plant Sale
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.” Federal Flinders MP Greg Hunt said last month it was vital to protect and retain the Mornington Peninsula Green Wedge as a major health, conservation, agricultural, economic and recreational environment for future generations. Speaking at a “green wedge summit”
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Frankston Times
30 July 2018
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