At this weeks Council Meeting...

Posted by Unknown at Friday, February 15, 2013 | 0 comments

So Tuesdays Council meeting again had a number of agenda items of high public interest. We had a number of questions from the public regarding a number of things from colour choice of building material, tree placement in the new streetscape in Monbulk, past election issues, visit of the Collingwood football club, the current downgrade/shift of services in Eastern Health, Vic forest's relocation.

Mr T. Heenan was present to ask a question regarding the Mt Evelyn Skate Park of which he is quite passionate about. Mr Heenan, wanted to ask about the progress of this park and other associated services, also a proposed BMX track next to it. This was taken on board by the engineering team for a response.

First Planning Application was the old "saw mill" site in Healesville. There a number of people present to represent the community of Healesville, including the SES, of which they were one of the objectors to this development. Due to the size of this project and the large public interest, Mayor Jim Child allowed two each (objectors and supporters) to speak to the council. Only one member spoke for the development. 2 people spoke against the application. Council also had a number of objectors from environment, planning and design. Victoria Police also had an objection and unfortunately due to Victoria Police being a statutory authority, this meant that the planning application had to be refused.

"Now this is the second development for this site to be knocked back. I would ask the community of Healesville to think about what they would like to see on this site, It has remained dormant for over 10 years and could be a great "advertisement" for Healesville." It looks like that this, unfortunately will now head to VCAT.

The other significant agenda item was Cr Dunn's motion to Rescind a resolution and adopt and Alternate motion regarding the Ethical Paper Pledge and requesting that the Yarra Ranges Council continue to be part of this pledge.

I made it known that I would be voting against this motion and remain off this pledge. I had not seen any new overwhelming evidence to suggest reasons why we should remain on this pledge. I didn't make this decision lightly and prior to the first vote back in December I had absolutely no idea about this issue.

In December, I visited local contractors and Vic Forest (on site) to see current coupes and current replanting activities. I do admit that fresh cleared coupes don't look pretty, I did see evidence of how coupes were marked out and how within each coupe certain trees were untouched due to its age or wildlife significance. I had read articles from My Environment about native forest logging, wildlife impacts and environmental issues. I am still keen to tour with My Environment to gain a balanced perspective. I also commented that the moving of Vic Forest's head office to the Yarra Ranges was not a priority of mine and wasn't the reason vote against the Pledge.

The motion was lost with Cr's Callanan, Witlox, McCarthy, McAllister and Child voting against the motion and Cr's Cox, Cliff, Avery, and Dunn for the motion.