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Wednesday 20 October 2021
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Summer safety patrols for plovers
BEACHGOERS are being asked to look out for hooded plovers nesting along shoreline at Mornington Peninsula beaches. Conservation Regulator officers and Parks Victoria rangers are patrolling beaches between Cape Schanck and Portsea, particularly St Andrews beach, to protect the threatened species and raise awareness of how to help them. Hooded plovers lay their eggs in shallow sand scrapes from August to April, so their nesting season overlaps with the beach-busy warmer months. The birds have a high rate of nest failure, with the eggs easily trampled by beach users and dogs. If an incubating adult bird is scared away from its nest by passers-by or dogs, its eggs can bake in the sun or become too cold in cool weather. This results in the death of the chick developing inside the egg. Officers and rangers are encouraging people to take note of signage at beaches, to give the birds plenty of space and keep dogs away from fenced-off nesting areas. Last breeding season BirdLife recorded 1003 hooded plover eggs along the state’s coastline. Of these 185 hatched and only 66 chicks survived to become juveniles, including 21 on the peninsula. “Small changes to behaviour on beaches can help Hooded Plovers as they face the challenge of nesting while sharing their habitat with beachgoers,” Conservation Regulator forest and wildlife officer Teisha Lay said. “If beach visitors could do their best to not disturb nesting hooded plovers and keep their dogs on leads around fenced-off habitat, it would make such a difference to the local population.” To report dogs harassing hooded plovers call Crime Stoppers 1800 333 000.
Majority rules on changes before vote Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au A SELECT group of councillors were given the opportunity to discuss amendments to rules under which Mornington Peninsula Shire operates at least 12 days before they became a last minute addition to the council agenda on Tuesday 24 August. Six councillors knew about the amendments which were not revealed to their five council colleagues until well after the public online meeting
had started. Although the changes had been the subject of a series of emails going back at least 11 days, they were not raised at the pre-meeting councillor briefing. The five councillors were not informed of the amendments proposed at the meeting by Cr Sarah Race, although the emails about them between the mayor Cr Despi O’Connor and the shire’s in-house lawyer Amanda Sapolu and CEO John Baker date back to at least 12 August. The proposed amendments were sent to Crs Race, Anthony Marsh, Kerri
McCafferty, Paul Mercurio and Lisa Dixon in the early evening on 18 August, six days before the scheduled council meeting. The five councillors left out of the email loop were David Gill, Steve Holland, Susan Bissinger, Antonella Celi and Debra Mar. When introducing her amendments to the Governance Rules one hour into the debate on 24 August, Cr Race apologised for the lateness, saying home schooling, COVID and late nights had made it “a bit of a process for me”. Cr Holland said last week that he
was “glad this has now come to light although it's hard to believe [what was written in the emails to the six councillors], it's quite damning”. “It's disappointing that some councillors appear to have been deliberately kept in the dark and excluded from such an important part of the decisionmaking process,” Cr Holland said. “The surprise amendment has empowered the bureaucracy and affected the ability of an elected councillor to represent the community. Now we find out that this was actually a calculated move, despite what has been claimed.”
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Cr Gill was “shocked” to find out there had been time for the Governance Rules amendment to be discussed with all councillors but “the mayor and five other councillors had seemingly settled the wording a week before the meeting”. “There seems to have been ample opportunity for all councillors to have been reasonably informed,” he said. “I believe it was said at the meeting that there wasn't time for other councillors to be informed.” Continued Page 5