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Tuesday 2 February 2021
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Not so quick, but Silver’s doing OK A FORMER racehorse living out his final years at a large Mount Eliza property is still a favourite with well wishers along Kunyung Road. At 32, Silver is showing signs of old age and starting to lose condition despite the loving care and attention of owner Hugh McLean. “Rest assured, Silver is a very much loved member of our family and we will do everything possible to make his remaining life happy,” he said. “He is still bright in himself and is now being fed twice a day with extra supplements as recommended by the vet.” Mr McLean said Silver had been given a new cotton summer rug to “help keep the body heat in”. “We now just have to wait and see how he goes and whether he puts any weight on,” he said. “Race almost run, but Silver’s still a favourite” Page 7 Picture: Gary Sissons
Fire risks clad in secrecy Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au SECRECY surrounds the location and identities of nine Mornington Peninsula buildings with combustible aluminium cladding. In keeping with its long held policy, Mornington Peninsula Shire last week avoided identifying the buildings uncovered in a state-wide audit by the Victorian Building Authority. Instead of agreeing to call on its own
staff to report on the progress of making the buildings safe, councillors at the year’s first Planning Services Committee meeting (27 January) agreed to the mayor telling the state government that its building surveyour, not the shire’s, should be responsible for ordering buildings to be repaired or even evacuated. The decision to overthrow Cr David Gill’s notice of motion calling for a progress report on making the nine buildings safe, followed warnings
about legal liability from the shire’s municipal building surveyor manager, David Kotsiakos. Mr Kotsiakos said acting on directions from the state building surveyour posed “a major risk to our municipal building surveyor”. “If the [VBA-appointed] panel of experts incorrectly direct our municipal building surveyor to issue emergency orders to evacuate a building, the legal responsibility and risk to council is potentially the shire’s and not the
state government,” he said in a report to council. Setting up the shire’s own review of cladding on buildings “would potentially cost millions of dollars in staff resourcing and possible legal damages,” Mr Kotsiakos stated. He suggested that instead of a councillors waiting for a report in February, as suggested by Cr Gill, “the mayor write to the Planning Minister [Richard Wynne] raising concerns with the current VBA cladding audit process and
that the state building surveyor should be responsible for issuing all notices or orders and not our municipal building surveyor”. Cr Gill told The News that approaching the state government “means we won’t find out anything”. “I just wanted to know if buildings identified with aluminium cladding on the peninsula have been fixed. But this information is, under the relevant act, seen as being confidential.” Continued Page 13
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