Election Q & A in Drysdale

Candidates for the seat of Bellarine in the forthcoming state election faced questions from

around forty north Bellarine voters at a Candidates Forum in Drysdale at 10.00am on 10 November.

The Drysdale, Clifton Springs and Curlewis Community Association (DCSCA) organised and ran the Forum at SpringDale Neighbourhood Centre, 17 - 21 High Street, Drysdale.

Four candidates accepted DCSCA’s invitation to attend: Naomi Adam (Animal Justice Party); Brian McKiterick (Liberal Party); Lisa Neville MP (Labour Party); and Rachel Semmens (Greens).

(Gayle Tierney, member for Western Victoria in Victoria’s upper house, stood in for Lisa Neville who - as Minister for Police - was in Melbourne dealing with a terrorist incident there the previous day.)

From local roads to One Belt, One Road!

Each candidate was given 5 minutes to argue why they should be elected to the seat; each then answered three questions that DCSCA had sent to them beforehand; then audience members were invited to ask their questions.

A wide range of topics was addressed. Some were explicitly about the north Bellarine: a new swimming pool, an offshore sculpture/reef, traffic management and a long-term plan for the area to address what most speakers argued is its over-development.

Other topics were of broader interest: the future of the TAFE system; crime, punishment an prevention; and the Memorandum of Understanding signed recently by the Victoria state government and the Chinese government concerning the latter’s “One Belt, One Road” policy. The event finished at 11.30am.

The Drysdale Forum was the third of four such events being run across the Bellarine Peninsula by the Combined Bellarine Community Associations (CBCA), of which DCSCA is a member.

10 November: State election candidates forum

DCSCA Open Day celebrates a new beginning

Drysdale & Clifton Springs Community Association (DCSCA) will hold an Open Day on Saturday December 19, 11.00am - 3.00pm at 164 Wyndham Street, Drysdale.

The Open Day will include a garage sale, a plant sale, live music, a Lions BBQ and a raffle. Drysdale glass artist Glenda MacNaughton will demonstrate glass-blowing and beadweaving, as part of an "Open Studio".

Members of the DCSCA Committee and of its Festival of Glass sub-committee will introduce the association and its work to visitors and hope to sign up some new members.

-->DCSCA President Rick Paradise said, "I'd like to thank the association's committee for organising the Open Day. Now, we need to get out and promote the Open Day through posters, media and talking to friends."

Association Secretary, Patrick Hughes, called the reprieve a new beginning for the association. "It means that we can return reinvigorated to representing local people’s views", he said, "as well as lobbying for increased local facilities and working with local organisations and the council to promote the well-being of local people and their environment."

The association invites contributions to the Open Day's garage sale; they can be left at the venue on the afternoon of Friday 18 December.  

A project conceived under pressure!
The Open Day was planned originally as a fund-raiser, at the time when DCSCA faced a potentially ruinous bill for $5,500 in legal costs - the result of an action at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).

The association had asked VCAT to overturn the planning permission granted to Caltex franchisee Milemaker Petroleum to build a service station at the junction of High Street and Jetty Road, Drysdale. VCAT dismissed DCSCA's application and ordered it to pay $5,500 legal costs to Milemaker by 7 December.

Fortunately, on November 6, Milemaker decided to waive the bill, relieving the financial pressure on DCSCA. By then, planning for the Open Day was well underway and the DCSCA Committee decided to turn it into a celebration of its reprieve and a drive for new members.

DCSCA's Cost Appeal - getting the word out!

On November 2, the Drysdale and Clifton Springs Community Association (DCSCA) issued a media release* to 17 local and regional media outlets, announcing the formal launch of its Cost Appeal to raise $5,500.

So far in its Appeal, the Association has written individually to 53 present and recent DCSCA members, to 34 local community groups and organisations and to the 13 City of Greater Geelong councillors, explaining the reason for the Cost Appeal, inviting them to contribute to it and asking them to pass-on the information to anyone whom they think might be interested.

Why an Appeal?
The reason for the Cost Appeal goes back to May, when DCSCA asked the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) to overturn planning permission granted to Milemaker Petroleum to build a service station at the junction of Jetty Road and High Street Drysdale. VCAT dismissed DCSCA's case and ordered it to $5,500 in legal costs to Milemaker.

If DCSCA can't pay the $5,500, it faces further legal proceedings that could close it down, ending its years of community-building work.

DCSCA has invited each City of Greater Geelong councillor to contribute to its Cost Appeal, despite the fact that the association incurred the $5,500 legal bill as a result of trying to overturn planning permission granted by the council. However, as the association's letter to each councillor states:
"You may have voted in 2014 to grant planning permission to Milemaker, but this needn’t imply that you believe that DCSCA should pay Milemaker’s legal costs. This was certainly the position of Councillor Rod Macdonald who - together with local federal MPs Richard Marles and Sarah Henderson, local state MP Lisa Neville and 349 people who signed an online petition - supported DCSCA’s request to VCAT not to make it pay Milemaker’s legal costs. (Thanks, Rod!)"

* To read the media release, see "Cost Appeal media release" on this blog (2 November 2015).

Minister supports DCSCA over legal bill

Lisa Neville, state Member of Bellarine and Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Water, publicly called on Milemaker Petroleum to relieve DCSCA of the $5,500 in Milemaker's legal costs that the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) has ordered it to pay.

The VCAT order followed its rejection of DCSCA's request to overturn planning permission for a new Milemaker service station in Drysdale. (See "VCAT orders DCSCA to pay $5,500 legal bill", 3 September 2015 on this blog.)

Ms Neville's call came in a speech to the Victorian state parliament on 20 August 2015.

Her speech reinforced remarks about the case made by Victorian Attorney-General Martin Pakula two days before. An article in The Age newspaper (18 August) about DCSCA's position included the following:
"(Mr. Pakula) said while Milemaker Petroleum now had the right to recover costs from the Drysdale and Clifton Springs Community Association, 'it could decide not to. I would encourage the respondent to consider its relationship with the local community in making that decision'."

Lisa Neville

Ms Neville's statement follows.
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This morning I call on Caltex Franchisee, Milemaker Petroleum, as a show of good will to the people of Drysdale, to waive the $5,500 in legal costs recently awarded against the Drysdale Clifton Springs Community Association.

The Drysdale and Clifton Springs Community Association is a very much respected volunteer led organisation that works tirelessly in representing the views and concerns of local residents.

In doing this, the Association in January 2014 lodged a submission opposing the proposed Milemaker service station with the City of Greater Geelong. Like many other local submissions, the Association argued that the site was an inappropriate location and zoned Rural Living. As Local Member I also provided my full support to this reasonable position, as did a petition of more than 400 hundred people.

However, COGG approved the application and the association then appealed the decision to VCAT. The appeal was dismissed on the grounds it was lodged late. Milemaker applied for legal costs, which was awarded by VCAT to the tune of $5,500.

This is a very substantial amount for any voluntary association and there is genuine fear that if these funds cannot be raised by the community, the Drysdale Clifton Springs Community Association will fold. That would be a devastating effect on the individuals involved and of course the wider community.

I therefore reiterate my call on Milemaker, as a show of good will, to waive this cost and begin the important process of building bridges with locals and in doing so becoming part of the wonderful community that Drysdale is.