NEWS DESK
Shire to back airshow if permit sought Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire’s requirement that Peninsula Aero Club conform to planning rules could jeopardise the staging of next year’s air show at Tyabb airfield. Club president Jack Vevers sees the shire’s insistence that the club seek a planning permit - as normally required for big events - as “blackmail”. The mayor, Cr David Gill, says the club and businesses associated with the airfield should conform to planning regulations. Mr Vevers on Sunday 30 June issued a news release claiming the shire had told the club it “will not be supporting a permit application to run the air show in 2020”. Not so, said Cr Gill: “[They] should just put in a permit application and stop misleading people. “We will work with them to make sure they get a permit for the air show. “We agree the air show is good for the peninsula, but they should stop this nonsense.” Mr Vevers said he had been told the shire “would not accept a secondary consent application as they have always done previously”. “We normally just write to the council and fill in a form which gives us a period to vary our permit so we can run the air show - say, seven days. It’s never been an issue before. “Now they have told me they want a full planning application before they will even consider it, but that would open up our permits so that they [can]
get full control of the airfield. “They have a win at any cost attitude. They are using the issue as blackmail.” Cr Gill has rejected suggestions that the council is trying to shut down Tyabb airfield or businesses operating there. He said the shire wants to “work out the permit and zoning concerns”. “There has been a lot of misleading publicity about the airfield and it is now time that our community know the facts,” Cr Gill said. “The council has been trying to resolve the issues including lack of permits, the need for a masterplan and a noise abatement plan, possible rezoning requirements and simply a club willingness to work with neighbours via the existing community reference group.” Under the Planning and Environment Act, 1987 businesses can be fined $1087 for operating without permits. Cr Gill’s statement follows council’s receipt of a summary of a report by a Queen’s Counsel that reportedly shows most businesses associated with the airfield are operating without the required permits. The News has asked for a copy of the ratepayer-funded report (See “Legal report to be kept under wraps” below). Cr Gill said other businesses “must be a little perplexed that they are required to hang their permits on their walls and abide by conditions while at least some private airfield businesses aim to self-regulate within a largely residential area”. “For decades now the substitute for the rational resolution of problems has been to ramp up the rhetoric and create an ‘us against them’ scenario while
clouding the real issues,” he said. “This leaves me wondering how this is going to help the workers and businesses involved. “The reality is that complex town planning matters will only be resolved by negotiation and applying standard regulations, not by any amount of abusive or disingenuous campaigning.” Cr Gill said that contrary to a report in The News (“Airfield reopens after permit talks” 25/6/19) he was “warmly welcomed” to an open day last month at the airfield. “It was surprising and untrue to read that I wasn’t welcome and didn’t know what I was talking about. There were, though, some who were only prepared to argue and make statements in order to gather support to put pressure on any council decisions,” he said.
JUDY Pay’s World War 11 Mustang is one of the aircraft that regularly makes an appearance at Tyabb airfield and Tyabb Aero Club’s air shows. Picture: Supplied
“The shire has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars assisting the airfield in the past and I hope continues to help ensure the viability of the businesses involved.
“I listen to all, but that doesn’t mean just agreeing, no matter how influential one group may be. Our community would expect nothing less.” With Stephen Taylor
Legal review to be kept under wraps THE “full legal review” into planning permits involving Tyabb airfield and businesses operating there will not be released to the public. Mornington Peninsula Shire has decided to extend the deadline for the review by a Queen’s Counsel beyond 30 June and at some stage release “a document consolidating the conditions of all current planning permits that currently apply to the Tyabb airfield”. The motion agreeing to the deadline change and to keeping the review
secret appears to conflict with council’s decision on 26 March for “the outcome of the legal review … be brought back to council by the end of the financial year, for a council briefing, prior to the findings being publicly released”. Both the initial call for the legal review and last week’s deadline extension were contained in notices of motion put by Cr Julie Morris and adopted unanimously by council.
Clean lines: Sarsha Pancic shows her surfing skills, left, and on the winner’s platform. Pictures: Supplied
Riding waves to success Stephen Taylor steve@mpnews.com.au THE surf’s up for Padua College student Sarsha Pancic, who was crowned the Victorian under-14 girls’ junior surfing champion in May. She will now represent Victoria at the Surf Dive and Ski Australian Junior Surfing Titles at Margaret River, Western Australia, in the first week of December. It’s been a big year for the Blairgowrie surfer who achieved success in three rounds of the Woolworths Victorian Junior Surfing titles in which she won at Phillip Island, placed third at
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Gunnamatta and came second at Jan Juc. Sarsha, 13, in year 8, grew to love the sport from an early age: “My dad would take me with my brother to Western Port when I was six and he would push me into the waves. I loved it,” she said. Constant practice has elevated her skills to competition level: “I try to surf as much as I can,” she said. “In summer it can be before school but mostly after school. “When the swell is smaller, I surf at Gunnamatta, Portsea back beach and Rye back beach. In winter I surf mostly in Western Port and at Jan Juc on the west coast.”
Sarsha enjoys the company of friends old and new in the water. “I love to surf and catch up with my friends at Torquay Boardriders Club,” she said. “We surf together, compete together and hangout when we are not riding the waves.” She finds surfing “so amazing”. “It’s fun and even scary at times when the swell is big. Surfing allows the freedom to be yourself and express yourself on the waves. No two waves are ever the same.” Her favourite surf spot is Snapper Rocks on the Gold Coast. “The water is warmer and I can surf all day and not get cold,” she said. Sarsha surfs in six competitions a year through
the Torquay club. “I also compete at larger surfing events around Australia, including the Rip Curl Grom Search,” she said. “I am lucky to have the opportunity and support from my family to travel and compete at some amazing places.” “I want to be a pro surfer and I’m going to work as hard as I can to get there,” she said, seeing the Australian Junior Surfing Titles at Margaret River as a stepping stone. “I would be over the moon to be awarded the Australian champion in my group.” Sponsors Bass Surfboards and Balin Surfers Hardware will no doubt have a keen interest in Sarsha’s progress.