Southern Peninsula
Features inside HEALTHY LIVING PAGES 33-35 FOOD AND ENTERTAINMENT PAGES 36–38 SOUTHERN PENINSULA SCOREBOARD PAGES 46–47
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10 January – 23 January 2013 Your fortnightly community newspaper covering Safety Beach to Portsea For advertising and editorial needs, call 1300 MPNEWS (1300 676 397) or email: team@mpnews.com.au www.mpnews.com.au
Cross purposes YOUNG men scramble for position and dive from Rye pier in a bid to be the first to retrieve the cross thrown in the water by a Greek Orthodox priest in a ceremony to mark the baptism of Christ. More Yanni pictures on Page 12
Wetlands stop work order By Mike Hast TOOTGAROOK Wetlands activist Cameron Brown of Rosebud West has had a David and Goliath-type win in the state planning tribunal. The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal has found that a permit issued by Mornington Peninsula Shire for a housing development on the edge of the wetlands is invalid. The win has been hailed by conserva-
tionists as a victory for “people power� and another step toward stopping commercial and residential development in the wetlands, large parts of which are privately owned. The VCAT ruling has embarrassed Mornington Peninsula Shire. If the development company is forced to remediate the block at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars, it might sue the shire for giving it the all-
clear to go ahead with the project. On 20 December, VCAT member Dalia Cook ordered a stop to all work on the 41-house development at 85 Elizabeth Ave, Rosebud West. She said subdivision works, including the dumping of thousands of tonnes of fill, had been done without a valid planning permit. Pumping of water from the block into Chinamans Creek or Tootgarook
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genous vegetation to stabilise the land and to provide for its longer term rehabilitation. The replanting regime must also take account of vegetation removed from the land undertaken as part of the preparatory or subdivision works�. Mr Brown, a member of Friends of Tootgarook Wetland Reserves, said he and his partner Jessica Durrant were pleased with the VCAT decision.
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Wetlands also was ordered to be halted. “Works ‌ must not recommence until a relevant planning permit is obtained,â€? Ms Cook stated. She said if a valid planning permit was not issued by 30 June, the owner of the land, TJBP Pty Ltd, must remove the fill, roads, services such as sewage pipes, and reinstate the land to its original condition. This included “replanting with indi-
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