NEWS DESK
High flyers rapped over land clearing MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire Council has praised residents for their “vigilance” in detecting and reporting illegal foreshore works on the beachside of a Portsea property owned by trucking magnate Lindsay Fox. The mayor Cr David Gill said the residents “assisted in bringing this matter to our attention [and] demonstrated our community’s desire to protect the peninsula’s unique environment”. This led to a company associated with Mr Fox being fined $10,000 in Dromana Magistrates’ Court and ordered to pay the council $10,000 in costs over illegal works on a 4600 square metre parcel at Point King beach. (“Fox fined over beach land” The News 10/9/2019). But Mr Fox is not the only high-flyer falling foul of the shire’s land-clearing and planning laws. Dual-Brownlow medalist Chris Judd was last week fined $40,000 and ordered to pay $6000 costs by the same court for wholesale clearing of 3000 square metres of private land at Main Ridge. The shire brought the charges under the Planning and Environment Act 1987. The former Carlton champion was caught out by “happenstance” when a council employee took photos of the
cleared land for his own use which were later used as evidence at the trial. The mayor Cr David Gill slammed recalcitrant landowners for trying to bring “their own brand of urbanisation” into the indigenous peninsula environment. “Judd tried to turn sensitive bushland into a park,” he said. “His was a severe case of land clearing.” Cr Gill said the fines imposed on the pair would not be their only expenses. “We will follow up restoration of the land in the Fox and Judd cases through VCAT and it will be costly for both of them,” he said. “It might take years to restore their land but if they think they can just use their money and it will be all done and dusted it will not be.”
Horse for a cause: Sarah Coe rode her horse Rocco to collect her We Support Tyabb Airfield poster on Sunday. Picture: Alicia Slater
Probus meeting
Posters at play in airfield saga
HASTINGS Combined Probus Club will be holding its 25th birthday celebration at The Hastings Club, 11am, Monday 7 October. The aim of Probus is friendship and happiness. Members hear from guest speakers on different subjects. Monthly morning teas and lunches are held at a range of venues. Trips are taken, the most recent being to Broken Hill and surrounds.
POSTERS supportting the continued operation of Tyabb Airfield have started popping up around the Western Port area. The poster campaign follows the easing of a protracted dispute with Mornington Peninsula Shire over plane take-off and landing times. The shire has said it supports the airfield but will insist that businesses operating there have appropriate permits.
The posters were the brainchild of Alicia Slater and Paul Mercurio, who said on social media: “It is our opportunity to voice and display our positive support for Tyabb Airfield. “Getting as many people as we can putting up our posters will show just how many Tyabb residents support the airfield and all that work there.” Peninsula Aero Club president Jack Vevers said more than 150 posters
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were distributed last Sunday (15 September). “We are very grateful to the Tyabb and surrounding communities for this initiative and overwhelmed by the show of support by some fantastic people,” he said. “The airport plays a vital role in hosting emergency services to protect all of the peninsula and the community understands and values this.”
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2013 FRANKSTON - FLINDERS ROAD, HASTINGS Western Port News
OPEN 7 DAYS 18 September 2019
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