The Southern Peninsula Aquatic Centre
The long running controversy over the pressure to construct a large aquatic centre on the foreshore at Rosebud is reaching a critical phase
Local state and federal members exhorting the Minister for the Environment and Climate Change to grant exceptional "coastal consent" to a project that has never been debated in council. See this link to see the issues involved
Local state and federal members exhorting the Minister for the Environment and Climate Change to grant exceptional "coastal consent" to a project that has never been debated in council. See this link to see the issues involved
Obvious parallels are being drawn with the annexation of foreshore crown land by Solomon Lew for a smaller pool. If he can't do it how can the shire?
Alternative sites
Go to this link to see alternative locations on a Google map
Comment
Council’s Bay Foreshore Hypocrisy
All Victorians should be pleased with the rejection by the government’s Department of Sustainability and Environment’s refusal to sell Port Phillip Bay foreshore public land for an illegally built private pool. The Mornington Peninsula Shire Council applauded the decision (The Sunday Age, October 9, 2011).
However, what is of greater concern to all Victorians is that the executive of the very same council and a local councillor are lobbying the government to construct its own aquatic/leisure complex, “the largest building project undertaken by the Mornington Peninsula (shire)” on the same bay foreshore, public reserve land at Rosebud. The proposed complex is 50 times larger than the Lew’s condemned pool and requires a car park for 200 vehicles.
Hypocrisy or incompetence? The shire also refuses to recognise that its low-lying site is likely to become one of the worst affected by inundation from sea level rise on the bay foreshore. Perhaps users will be able to swim out to the complex.
A further embarrassment is that the proposal to use public open space is inconsistent with the recent comment by the government’s Minister for Planning who said he would be making new parks for Melbourne.
The bay foreshore belongs to all Victorians and must not be allowed to be squandered by a shire executive and local councillor to build a monument to themselves, dubbed by many as “Palace de Versailles by the sea”.
Dr Alan Nelsen
Secretary, Mornington Peninsula Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association, Inc
All Victorians should be pleased with the rejection by the government’s Department of Sustainability and Environment’s refusal to sell Port Phillip Bay foreshore public land for an illegally built private pool. The Mornington Peninsula Shire Council applauded the decision (The Sunday Age, October 9, 2011).
However, what is of greater concern to all Victorians is that the executive of the very same council and a local councillor are lobbying the government to construct its own aquatic/leisure complex, “the largest building project undertaken by the Mornington Peninsula (shire)” on the same bay foreshore, public reserve land at Rosebud. The proposed complex is 50 times larger than the Lew’s condemned pool and requires a car park for 200 vehicles.
Hypocrisy or incompetence? The shire also refuses to recognise that its low-lying site is likely to become one of the worst affected by inundation from sea level rise on the bay foreshore. Perhaps users will be able to swim out to the complex.
A further embarrassment is that the proposal to use public open space is inconsistent with the recent comment by the government’s Minister for Planning who said he would be making new parks for Melbourne.
The bay foreshore belongs to all Victorians and must not be allowed to be squandered by a shire executive and local councillor to build a monument to themselves, dubbed by many as “Palace de Versailles by the sea”.
Dr Alan Nelsen
Secretary, Mornington Peninsula Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association, Inc
Mornington Peninsula Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association, Inc - Submission to public meeting
| mprra_presentation_4_may_2012.pdf |
