NEWS DESK
Poll issues range from Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au FOOTPATHS, foreshores … and frogs. There is seemingly no end – and some cases no relation - to the variety of issues and concerns listed by the 50 candidates for the 11 seats on Mornington Peninsula Shire Council. Easily added to the three mentioned above are “over development”, waste disposal, planning for coastal “villages” and, certainly an elephant in the room, how much councillors should be allowed to spend above their $29,000 a year stipend ($92,000 for the mayor). The candidates’ buzz word for this election is community. Although not a definable issue, community will be a frequent persuader used by candidates in their search for votes. With just four of the shire’s current councillors seeking re-election, the outcome is certain to be a game changer for voting patterns on the council. Although it’s guaranteed that seven councillors will not have been re-elected from the current council, some of the “new” faces sitting in the council chamber after the 22 October election may be familiar, with several former councillors deciding it may be their time, again. New alliances will eventually be formed within the council, but for now and at least a short time after the election, the shire’s newly-elected community representatives will be relatively free of old animosities. Like it or hate it, Arthurs Seat is again about to be equipped with a chairlift, or rather a gondola
ride called the Eagle. Candidates old and new are singing its praises and probably relieved that’s one battle they will not have to face. Surprisingly, finding a site for a swimming pool at Rosebud may again soak up council time. Rex Griffin, a former mayor and still current councillor of the City of Whittlesea, has nominated for Seawinds ward. Mr Griffin is moving to his former holiday home at Dromana and says he has been a regular in the public gallery at meetings of Mornington Peninsula council for the past five years. He says the council has been “like a cesspool, with councillors arguing and fighting. Enough’s enough”. Mr Griffin says disposing waste off the peninsula is expensive and notes that the Rye tip “can be kept open for another 18 years”. He believes that with his help and experience the shire can get more money from state and federal governments. Regarding a swimming pool at Rosebud, or SPA (Southern Peninsula Aquatic Centre), Mr Griffin says “you can throw a pool anywhere” but enthuses about “how Lorne and other places have pools on the foreshore”. “There’s room down there [on the Rosebud foreshore]. It’s accessible and I can’t see a problem with it going there.” Former councillor and mayor (2011-12) Frank Martin, although living in Briars ward, is also seeking election in Seawinds. Mr Martin wants to see the councillors’ code of conduct “revisited and enforced”; is wary of the increasing number of high density developments; and wants changes to the special charge
Bid for a private Stephen Taylor steve@mpnews.com.au A MORNINGTON Peninsula council candidate has withdrawn an application for a planning scheme amendment that would allow planes to be on her property abutting Tyabb airfield. Lisa Dixon and her husband Ken Ingersoll had sought approval to amend planning rules over their property in Stuart Rd, Tyabb. Ms Dixon says she intends to stand for the Watson ward seat left vacant since the resignation in May of former councillor, Lynn Bowden. “It has been a massive journey, not to mention the financial and emotional toll it has placed on us,” Ms Dixon said in a letter asking the shire’s strategic planning manager Allan Cowley to end the amendment process. The shire’s decision to exhibit the planning scheme amendment came despite a 2014 ruling that any decision on use of the site must wait until completion of the Tyabb Airfield Precinct Plan
which is expected to begin this month. Objectors claimed the move would give the Peninsula Aero Club member Ken Ingersoll “backdoor approval for a hangar in spite of the still-valid 2004 reasons for it not being there” (“Anger over hangar plan” The News 19/7/16). Tyabb and District Ratepayers’ Group sees the use of private land to store aircraft as “an incremental expansion of the airfield”. Ms Dixon’s letter to Mr Cowley thanked him for the “inordinate amount of time and effort you have spent over the past five years in trying to deliver an outcome for the No. 2 shed at 62 Stuart Rd”. The shire has not been able to provide The News with details of how much it has spent on processing the planning amendment requested by Ms Dixon and Mr Ingersoll. Ms Dixon has also asked council to not order demolition of the shed, saying that they would continue to abide by a Victorian and Civil Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) ruling “of leaving it vacant”.
Shire’s backing lifts SAVE the Dromana Pier campaigners are buoyed by Mornington Peninsula Shire’s support for their cause, even though any decision on its future ultimately rests with Parks Victoria. Councillors voted at Monday night’s Special Council meeting – the last before the shire goes into caretaker mode – to advocate for the redevelopment of the pier to ensure its long-term survival. The group’s secretary Ray Barnard-Brown said the shire’s backing was a much-needed “shot in the arm” for their campaign. “It gives us added legitimacy,” he said. It also reinforces community approval for the 1862 pier – extended in 1873 and rebuilt in the 1950s – which was reflected in a 7000-signature petition collected at a foreshore rally on Australia Day. A 2012 report by the Association for Building Community in Dromana had predicted the life span of the existing pier, even accounting for recent repairs, was only eight-10 years. A shire planning report recommends the advocacy stance be directed at Parks Victoria and the
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Southern Peninsula News
27 September 2016