Connecting people & communities PAKENHAM Thursday, 10 April, 2014
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.com.au Thursday, 10
April, 2014 Page
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Propertyy Lift out
CLASSY
Free dress puts food in the bank On Friday 4 April, Lakeside Lutheran College staff and students organised a free dress day and took donations of non perishable items to donate to the 4Cs food bank in Pakenham. Students Simon Harman and Tamara Jager, pictured here with chaplain Kathy Mildred and principal David Spike, led the collection on behalf of the school community. 118445 See page five for further details.
Council says church parking scheme is testament to smart thinking...
Bless this plan By GARRY HOWE A PAKENHAM church has been praised for its initiative in overcoming a potential parking problem for its growing congregation. The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints sought council permission to increase capacity at its site on the corner of the Princes Highway and Pakenham Road to 220 at peak times. Council rules stipulate that the church must have access to 66 car parking spaces for that number of peo-
ple and it only has 31 on site. So the church struck a deal with neighbouring David Bull Funeral Services, on the other side of Pakenham Road, to have access to its 36 car parks on weekends. That deal took the number to an acceptable 67. Central Ward councillor Collin Ross applauded the church for its initiative. “It’s good that they have come up with a solution,” he told Monday night’s town planning meeting.
“If more groups show that sort of initiative, we as a council would be in a position to approve a lot more of these applications.” Cr Ross likened the church’s situation to a fledgling restaurant, which started out seeking moderate patronage but became more popular over time. He said it was hard enforcing parking stipulations on businesses that started up in the hope of building patronage. In the case of the church, he stressed that it would be back to the
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Lakeside Lutheran College g
Open Day Family Fun D ay Saturday 3 May from 10am –
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drawing board if for some reason the David Bull deal came off the table. “If they abuse it we can always revoke the permit,” he said. Council officers rejected an application for another place of worship in Bate Court, Pakenham, on the grounds that it was not suited to an industrial estate and did not have the required parking. Cr Ross successfully argued for the matter to be held over to allow further discussion with the applicant. The other significant planning
move at Monday night’s meeting was the rejection of a bid by Ambulance Victoria to redevelop its Main Street headquarters and extend on to the old police station site at the back. The council said the ambulance station, established in the 1960s, was no longer suited so close to the Pakenham CBD. It wants the ambos to move further up Main Street to the corner of Snodgrass Street. For the full story, pick up a copy of this week’s Pakenham-Berwick Gazette.