Connecting people & communities CRANBOURNE
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Thursday, 28 January, 2016
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Thursday, 28
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Season of the snake
Cliff’s Aussie pride
A super signing ng g for Southern United
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SPORT
January, 2016
Property ty Lift outt
We won’t share By GEORGIA WESTGARTH IT’S the battle between Cranbourne home owners and the State Government that could change the way share houses are developed across Victoria. Hundreds of Brookland Greens residents with the backing of Casey Council are locked in a fight with the State Government as they push to change laws surrounding share house provisions. More than 340 Casey residents met at the Cranbourne Turf Club to hear from council officers, Cr Geoff Ablett and Shadow Minister for Planning David Davis on Monday 25 January. The site in question at 5 Concord Place, Cranbourne has been subject to several protests and two petitions to stop a proposed development of two 10-place share houses. Locals have labelled the current lack of council involvement in the establishment of share houses as an “absurd situation”. As it stands, State Government laws allow share housing to go ahead without prior council planning approval or consultations with neighbours. The agitated crowd pushed the powerless Casey council officers for answers throughout the one-hour meeting with hopes the State Government will answer their calls in the coming weeks. Director of Planning and Development at City of Casey, Peter Fitchett told the crowd “the devil is in the detail.”
Mr Fitchett explained to the audience that the only way to truly win the fight is if the law is formerly gazetted to include the council’s right to consider planning as well as what the development will be used for. “And we’ve written to the State Government about this,” Mr Fitchett said. Shadow Minister for Planning David Davis admitted that there was a “loophole” in the law, saying the State Government had stated in recent days that a change was imminent. But for one Cranbourne resident, the amendments will come much too late. Wishing to remain anonymous, a resident of Houghton Drive Cranbourne came forward on the night and expressed how she and her neighbours lived in angst, next door to a share house. “There’s plenty of drug overdoses there, stabbings, consistent drug dealing and fights,” she said. “We hear the yelling, swearing and carrying on and one night we woke up to find the fence had been pulled down during an argument – the gate had been thrown into the middle of road.” “It was a nice quiet area to retire in and we don’t want to go looking for something else – we have thought about moving, but then you think why should we?”
Our rays of sunshine IT was a day to celebrate and appreciate all of the colourful cultures that make up Australia. And Cranbourne’s Oz Day event took on a life of its own with a myriad of artistic performances. One mother-daughter couple, Joviale Clarke and Florence Shinanduku, were a beam of joy. For the full story, turn to pages 4 and 5. 149378 Picture: GEORGIA WESTGARTH
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