NEWS DESK
CFA plea for volunteers to be patient CFA brigades on the Mornington Peninsula have been inundated by volunteers wanting to join up to fight the state’s unprecedented bushfires. However, while their interest is welcomed, the sheer volume of applicants is causing problems. Peninsula Fire Brigades Group officer Timothy Desmond said all brigades welcomed interest from volunteer their time, but 18 applicants in just the past week was too many to handle. “The Country Fire Authority is one of the most respected fire services in the world [and] we sincerely appreciate people wanting to step up and help their community,” he said. High fire activity across the state meant that all eight all peninsula brigades had supplied volunteers and staff to “support crews in NSW earlier in the season and to East Gippsland while still maintaining a local response capacity”. “Since 1 January we have deployed 56 members some on multiple occasions - and another nine leave this Sunday (19 January). Dromana, Flinders, Mt Martha and Rosebud tankers are working in the Swifts Creek/Orbost areas.” Widespread publicity of the fires triggered a strong public response. Mr Desmond said “numerous people” had asked about being a volunteer with the Boneo, Dromana, Flinders, Main Ridge, Mt Martha, Rosebud, Rye, Safety Beach and Sorrento brigades. While the response was “fantastic” volunteers should realise they “won’t be fighting fires this fire season”. “Basic firefighting training is required to make sure our members are equipped with the right skills and knowledge to stay safe and provide the right advice and assistance to the community under challenging and often dangerous circumstances,” Mr Desmond said. “As you can imagine, our brigades – along with many other emergency services – are extremely busy and it is expected to be a very long fire season, so please be patient with us. You might not hear from us for a while, until things settle down, [but] we will contact you.” Stephen Taylor
Shire wants final say MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire wants to protect the peninsula’s “unique landscape” by having the power to decide how much land is set aside for and commercial and industrial purposes. The shire says projections for industrial and commercial land that will be needed on the peninsula are wrong in a plan prepared for the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP). In a submission to DELWP, the council says the amount of commercial floor space that needed on the peninsula by 2031 is overestimated in the draft Melbourne Industrial and Commercial Land Use Plan. The shire’s submission criticises parts of the DELWP report as being confusing and wrong, especially when it comes to identifying land set aside for port related industries and what is needed in commercial areas. It blames the state government for changing planning laws and allowing shops and supermarkets to operate within industrial zones. The shire says the plan seriously underestimates the amount of land already set aside for port related purposes around Hastings and Crib Point. It says the draft plan and makes only “passing reference” to the government’s choice of Bay West, in Port Phillip, as the site for the state’s next container port, with Hastings an “option in reserve”. The shire says some of the land set aside for port related purposes should be used for agriculture or conservation. While the DELWP report says the peninsula will need to “target” an extra 171,000 square metres of commercial floor space, the shire’s own estimates says it will need 78,000sqm by 2036. The shire says predictions in the draft plan should be used as planning tools rather than targets and would be better “directed” at metropolitan activity centres like Frankston rather than Mornington, Rosebud or Hastings which have limited access to public transport and face “significant environmental restraints”. It says providing electric train services to Hastings would provide “significant benefits” to Victoria. Keith Platt
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Western Port News
22 January 2020
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