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PORT PHILLIP Newsletter of Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc. |
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A0020093K |
PP2006B July 2006 www.vicnet.net.au/~phillip |
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Appeal to VCAT
against Rosebud Foreshore skate park disallowed |
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A significant part of the PPCC Inc.
case was based on the clear direction given by VCAT in 2003 when it
disallowed a similar permit granted to the Shire Council for a
skateboard facility on the Rye Foreshore Reserve. The relevant parts of
both Rosebud
and PPCC Inc. has
now written to the Minister for Planning, Hon. Rob Hulls MLA, asking
him to intervene to implement the coastal dependency provisions of the
Victorian Coastal Strategy, and also for a meeting with him to convey
the concern that planning policies are failing to properly reserve and
protect coastal Crown land. During the VCAT
hearing the spokesman for the Department of Sustainability and
Environment said that he was unable to tell VCAT what is meant by a
coastal dependent use. That is not good enough, given that confining
foreshore land to “coastal dependent uses” is a major concept in the
Victorian Coastal Strategy, and has been a longstanding principle of
coastal land use in Victoria. The lack of such dependency was the
principal ground on which VCAT rejected Mornington Peninsula Shire
Council’s proposal for a foreshore skateboard park at Rye in 2003! PPCC Inc. thanks
those persons and organizations that made generous donations towards
the cost of the appeal to VCAT on this important matter of principle. |
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Australian
Conservation Foundation is threatened by undemocratic moves |
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PPCC Inc. has
been a longstanding Member Body of the Australian Conservation
Foundation, which is Australia’s leading membership organization for
conservationists. It is concerned that the on the recommendations of
its Governance Committee the ACF appears to be proposing far reaching
undemocratic changes to the ACF Constitution. Two leading
Victorian ACF Councillors, Dr Geoff Mosley and Mr David Risstrom, are strongly opposing the planned
changes. Victoria is the State with the most ACF members, and almost
50% of the ACF members in Victoria that voted at the last ACF postal
ballot for the election of ACF’s governing
body, the ACF Council, gave their first preference vote to one of those
two ACF councillors. ACF
Council to cease being Governing Body The ACF
Governance Committee has persuaded the ACF Council to support a
proposed change to the ACF Constitution that would effectively rename
the Executive Committee as the “Board”, and make it the governing body
of the Foundation rather than the Council. This is totally
unsatisfactory, as it is the Council, which is directly elected by ACF
members at triennial postal ballots, that is closest to ACF members and
most attuned to their views, whereas the “Board” would be elected, not
by ACF members, but by the Council. That would leave the Council as an
ineffectual discussion group. Plan
to Bypass Postal Ballot of Members! The Governance
Committee has persuaded the present ACF Council to accept this ploy on
the spurious grounds that the present Constitution is defective because
its provision that it cannot be changed without a postal ballot of
members makes no reference to the current ACT law under which ACF is
incorporated, which requires that no change can be made without a
general meeting passing a special resolution. The councillors
refused to accept the point made by Dr Mosley and Mr Risstrom that it was still necessary to consult
ACF members first in the way that members had stipulated, viz. a postal
ballot, before proposals put there were ratified by what is, for a
nation-wide organization of over 10,000 members, the far less
democratic procedure of a general meeting. See whether you can find any
mention of these moves on the ACF Web site, www.acfonline.org.au PPCC Inc’s concerns have led it to stating the detailed case and the recommendations of those two Victorian ACF councillors at a page on its Web site, which is www.vicnet.net.au/~phillip/more.htm |
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Minister’s Final
Assessment: Planned 27 hectare marina at Werribee South |
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The Minister for Planning, Hon. Rob Hulls
MLA, has given his Final Assessment of the recommendations of the
Independent Panel set up to consider the Environmental Effects Statement for this proposal prepared under the Environmental Effects Act 1978.
Wyndham Cove Marina Pty. Ltd. seeks a permit to build a marina at Werribee
South, which would cover 27 hectares (67 acres) of the
waters of Port Phillip. That area of sea
and seabed would be almost fully enclosed by a high sea wall of
boulders 1 kilometre long. The impact on Port Phillip would also
include a 5-storey and other associated buildings on the coast, along
with a restaurant, shops and service buildings, as well as a
200-dwelling residential development adjoining the marina structures
and their associated car parks. PPCC Inc. made a
written and oral submission to the Independent Panel. The Minister’s
final assessment has been to endorse the recommendations of the Panel,
which accepted the proposal, subject to a number of minor conditions.
Some of those included measures to protect the development from dust
and other inconveniences presented by the nearby established use of the
land, which is market gardening. |
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Cafe is to be
Allowed as part of new Seaford Life Saving Club Building |
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Friends of
Seaford Foreshore Reserve Inc, a Member Organization of Port Phillip
Conservation Council Inc, has opposed the inclusion of a 20-seat cafe
in the redevelopment plans for the Seaford Life Saving Club building,
which appears near the Station Street pier in the aerial photograph
below. |
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Location of Seaford Life
Saving Club House |
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PPCC
Inc. supported this view in its letter to the relevant authorities.
Unfortunately Frankston City Council, at a July 2006 meeting, accepted
the staff recommendation that a commercial cafe be included as part of
the permit granted for the new structure. The
present building has been irresponsibly allowed to deteriorate to such
an extent that replacement has become a sounder alternative than
refurbishment. PPCC Inc. and FOSFR Inc. object to the planned
development as currently proposed by Frankston Council. PPCC Inc. will
support an appeal to VCAT if FCC endorses the present proposal. In 2004
PPCC Inc. stated a number of limits it sought on the size and impact of
the new building. One of the principal limits was that catering and
refreshment provision should be no more extensive than the existing
kiosk. Life
Saving Club buildings are tending to become Trojan horses in moves by
commercial interests to gain a foothold on our public foreshore land. A
classic case is the former Parkdale Life Saving Club building, which is
now a restaurant. |
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© 2006 Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc. 47 Bayview
Crescent, BLACK ROCK VIC 3193 A0020093K President: Len Warfe Secretary: Jennifer Warfe Tel: (03) 5987 1583 Fax: (03) 5987 2537 |
