Dan Andrews Issues STAY AT HOME ORDER select suburbs

Feedback to Newspaper

Dear Editor

I am appreciating your publication, in particular the (mercifully short) excerpts from the last council meeting.

Also, the articles on the $30 million secret stash and the (beholden) position of other media with the increased advertising spend, of our money, from council were informative reading.

I also enjoyed the contribution from 18-year-old Amity from Fish Creek and her passion for environmental and social issues, and that she didn’t lecture or make demands on the rest of us. Her letter reminded me of my own commitment to such issues as a younger person and the quote attributed to Winston Churchill that “anyone who is not a communist (greenie) at the age of 20 has no heart ………”

Steve Finlay

Leongatha

 

Who was listening????

Several ratepayers chose to speak to their submissions in the recent budget s233 process. This process is a legal requirement under the Local Government Act. Council cannot approve a Budget until they have given, AND CONSIDERED, responses from ratepayers.

After reviewing the live stream of this meeting I felt compelled to write a letter of complaint to the Administrators since in my opinion, and it should be self-evident from watching the 5 minutes that I spoke for, that at least two of the 3 administrators were not listening.

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Delburn Windfarm Information from OSMI

The Delburn Wind Farm that is proposed in the HVP plantation between Mirboo North, Boolarra Thorpdale and Hernes Oak has not yet applied for approval to be built.

Under Victorian law a planning permit is required to construct a wind energy facility and, depending on the location and impacts of the proposal, approval may also be required from the Commonwealth Government.

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Venus Bay Precinct Plan Adopted

At its meeting on Wednesday, South Gippsland Shire Council adopted the Venus Bay Tourism Precinct Plan. 

The Precinct Plan was developed following a Council decision in February 2018 to prepare a plan to consider current and emerging issues related to the Venus Bay town centre in response to population and visitor growth.

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Keeping Sessional Kinder Fees Low For Term 3

The Andrews Labor Government will continue to reduce the cost of sessional kindergarten for families and provide kinders with extra cleaning for all of Term 3 as part of a $45 million support package during the coronavirus pandemic.

Minister for Education James Merlino announced the funding will provide $230 per child for Term 3, which is expected to save parents approximately half the cost of average kindergarten fees. This will mean that on average families will only pay $23 a week for sessional kindergarten in Term 3.

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Budget Submission on Capital Works

These appear to be a means of pulling extra rates form the residents. In the past year Council had a substantial capital works budget. Some 6 months into the 2019-2020 year Council scrapped $1.8M of works. These were not just deferred but deleted altogether.

That is $1.8M that found its way into Council reserves without the approval of the ratepayers.

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Council Refuses to discuss Topics they dont want to discuss in the s233 Budget Process

Council have changed the way that s233 submissions are treated if the following is anything to go on. It appears that if the project you wish to discus is not in the next 12 months works they will refuse to even discuss or consider the proposal unless of course, they do entertain the discussion. So one can only think that they will now only consider submissions under the local government act if they agree with them or are happy to have them discussed in open and transparent style.

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