Uncategorized

“It is clear that not doing anything is no longer an option.”-South Gippsland Council statement on Coal Creek

Dec 17, 2023 Carpe Diem

Coal Creek discussion paper starts off by stating a decision needs to be made about its ongoing operation, continued relevance, and sustainability.

The scene is set to lead the community through a process eventually leading to a foregone conclusion. Read on.

The document says it is a starting point for a community engagement process to decide the future of Coal Creek. It implores the reader to read it carefully, explore the options presented and of course, share their thoughts and ideas. Council says it is committed to taking action on the outcomes of the engagement process.

Council claims that despite recent strong events such as the Southern Lights Festival that attracted thousands of people, that underneath this lies a financial and structural reality that they say cannot be ignored.

They say that budget constraints limit the Park’s operations and development. The bulk of Council’s budget allotted to operations goes to maintaining the status quo, paying staff, maintaining buildings, and running the events and activities within the Park.

Despite current maintenance levels which Council has admitted will not stop the continuing decline in assets the report says that recent inspections reveal that many buildings and other infrastructure need repair. They claim the estimated investment could be significant if all buildings and structures were to be refurbished over the next 5-10 years.

Editorial comment: This newspaper has been highlighting the lack of investment on maintenance for 18 months now and showing the rot within many of the assets in the Park. This Council report also fails to indicate the financial commitment from Council required.

Visitor numbers have fallen from a high of 68,770 in 2013/2014 to 23, 564 (Jan-Oct) in 2023. Volunteer numbers post covid have grown from 3 in 2021 to 30 in 2023. Most people visit the Park for events, displays, and natural settings.

The operating budget for 2023-24 is $838,073 which includes major costs for administration and wages, utilities and tramway maintenance and insurance. The capital works budget also includes $114,000 for the whole Shire’s heritage buildings maintenance works.

Coal Creek is Crown Land and Council is the delegated authority to manage the area. Council is also delegated to manage the Memorial Hall and related buildings which is also Crown Land.

Council is seeking feedback on 3 options:

Option 1: revitalisation

This option involves continuing Coal Creek’s current operations while adding new activities and attractions. The key challenge is the need for funding to address operational and safety issues and the necessity to innovate beyond current offerings to significantly boost appeal. The opportunity lies in the potential for increased visitation, enhanced community engagement, and a positive impact on the local economy, particularly through hosting diverse events, festivals, and educational programs.

Summary Continuing current operations with additional activities and attractions to increase appeal.

Option 2: new direction

The community may identify a new direction for Coal Creek through the engagement process, provided it meets the strategic planning requirements outlined earlier. This ambitious approach may require significant investment, including external funding, and the challenge lies in managing large-scale development while aligning with community values. The opportunity here could be transformative – turning Coal Creek into a sustainable tourism attraction that offers long-term benefits to the community.

Summary A substantial shift based on recommendations from the engagement process.

Option 3: ceasing current operations

Ceasing operation as a Community Park and Museum is not a simple task. It involves deaccessioning the collections and dismantling the buildings and will require extensive community consultation.
The challenges here are significant – it would be an expensive and lengthy process. The costs would include wages, demolition works, storage and deaccessioning of the collection, legal fees, and security during the closure period. It’s noteworthy that the collection’s removal, a more time-consuming process than demolishing buildings, would necessitate three full-time curators over three years to complete. Council would face a significant financial burden in managing this process, ensuring appropriate standards in handling the collection, and meeting its obligations to the community and the site’s heritage. The process also involves complex logistical challenges and potential resistance from the State Government regarding asset relinquishment. However, this option offers the opportunity to re-purpose the land for new community needs and reduces long-term ongoing operational expenses.

Summary Ceasing operations involving deaccessioning collections, dismantling buildings, and extensive community consultation.

Editorial comment: Previous external reviews of the opportunities such as the report into a school camp proposal which showed the potential to turn the financial situation around to a positive cash flow opportunity have simply been shelved by the officers over the years and have failed to gain significant mention in this report.

This report appears to read as doom and gloom leading to a reduction in some way of Coal Creek’s assets. It is hard to see how any community engagement would find a positive solution when all previous reports that have been conducted by Council have not been made available for people to view in this process.

Perhaps it is not the problem that needs addressing but those in charge of managing it-if the Council does not have the staff ability to come up with a plan as shown by the last 15 years of abject failure to act, then perhaps the community needs a CEO and staff that are able to find solutions and manage assets like Coal Creek for the community.

Uncategorized

Local Lemon Law update

Dec 17, 2023 Carpe Diem

Second draft at Local Laws by the Council that brought you the Lemon Laws

Council have brought the second draft of their local laws document to the December Council meeting and there have been a few notable changes made to the original draft.

Nature strips can be mowed without needing a permit

Council have removed the reference to needing a permit to destroy, damage or remove any VEGETATION so mowing the nature strip will no longer require a permit from Council.

Farmers can be fined for having weeds (new addition)

Council did add in the word noxious weeds meaning that farmers might be issued an infringement notice if someone sees a ragwort on their property and thinks the beast is unsightly.

Bike riding is again permitted

Council removed the bicycle reference to clause 23 about toys being used, placed, or left on a road or in a municipal place. So riding your bike is now allowed again on roads and in municipal places.

Can now sell from home again without needing a permit.

Council removed the clause that stated people were not allowed to sell or offer goods for sale from their private property if the property was adjacent to a road.

So garage sales, selling on ebay, selling at the local market all allowed again without a permit required.

Lemons still not able to be given away to neighbours door to door.

The rule is unchanged as follows:

Without a permit, a person must not:…… (b) distribute any products, services, handbills, flyers or other printed material, on or from any road or municipal place, or from premises to premises, or cause or authorise another person to do so.

So people are still not going to be allowed to hand out leaflets, flyers or bibles to neighbours or door to door deliveries of lemons from your abundant lemon tree.

Grass still must be 300mm but farms are exempt if the grass is for fodder.

Dilapidated buildings wording changed to dangerous buildings

34. (1) An owner or an occupier of private property which is dangerous to the extent that it threatens a person’s or an animal’s life or health, any property or the natural environment must:

This was changed from any building in a dilapidated state that might have not been a danger to anyone.

Keeping of animals

Restrictions on the keeping of animals s40 which applied to some farmland zones has been reworded so the farm zones are exempt as follows:

S40. (3) Sub-clause (1) does not apply to private property located in a Rural Conservation or Rural Living Zone (as defined in the Planning Scheme) if the private property is farm land.

Animal waste

Farmland has been generally made exempt from the animal housing restrictions around waste as follows:

The following clauses no longer apply to farm land.

(ii) all animal food for consumption kept or stored on the private property is kept or stored in a vermin and fly-proof receptacle;
(iii) animal waste is not offensive and does not cause a nuisance to any other person; and
(iv) any animal odour emanated from the private property does not interfere with the immediate amenity of the area.

Droving

Council have reworded this section or maybe it would be more correct to say they swapped clause 1 and 2 over but the effect is the same.

The original draft version said:
Livestock – grazing, droving and movement on a road or municipal place
(1) Without a permit, a person must not cause, allow or undertake the grazing or droving of livestock on a road or on or in a municipal place.
(2) Sub-clause (1) does not apply when the person complies wholly with the Manual for Traffic Control at Stock Crossings (Vic Roads, June 2015), including obtaining all necessary permissions from the relevant road authority

The latest draft version says:
Livestock – grazing, droving and movement on a road or municipal place
(1) A person who causes, allows or undertakes the grazing or droving of livestock on a road or on in a municipal place must comply wholly with the Manual for Traffic Control at Stock Crossings (VicRoads, June 2015), including obtaining all necessary permissions from the relevant road authority.
(2) A person who does not comply or is incapable of complying with sub-clause (1) must not, without a permit cause, allow or undertake the grazing or droving of livestock on a road or on or in a municipal place

It can be clearly seen that clause (1) and (2) have merely been swapped around and reworded but say exactly the same thing.

We therefore decided to look up the manual for stock crossing on Vicroads site ourselves.

On the website it says in big text the following:

This Manual is to be used by farmers, drovers and other people who have a stock crossing permit from a coordinating road authority (VicRoads or municipal Council) – or who are exempted by a local law from the need to have a permit – to have stock on roads or road reserves in Victoria.
So the manual is saying that the manual applies to people with a permit from Council so without a permit, none can comply so everyone must get a permit.

The local law draft then says:
“This clause has been reworded to make it clearer that a permit to graze or drove livestock on a road or in a municipal place is only required if a person is unable to adhere to the conditions in the Manual for Traffic Control at Stock Crossings, including necessary permissions.”

So if the farmer is merely stock crossing the road he must comply with the requirements in the manual for stock crossings BUT he will still need a permit! If he wants to take his stock down the road and into another property he owns he will also need a permit since the manual says droving must comply with Council requirements.

The manual says the following:
“All relevant local law permits must be obtained prior to droving of stock.”

Domestic Bins

The clause stating that bins could not be out for more than 1 day before or after bin collection has been removed and put in the bin.

The Council have put the whole thing out for a further one month over the Xmas/New Year period for the community to have another go. Council might be hoping people get fed up of having to do this again and again only to spot obvious issues that should never have been included in the first or in this case, the second go at drafting these laws.

Council

Municipal Office Project Return

Dec 13, 2023 Carpe Diem

Key Dates

2013 Budget Added $34 Million unallocated roads

2015 Money transferred to Buildings then finally to the Municipal Office Project

2017 Municipal Office Project Removed from Budget by new Council

2019 June 21st Council Dismissed

2019 June 28th $30 Million New Expenditure Added to the Budget within one week of Council dismissal

2019 June 30th Administrators Approved Officer Budget Recommendations.

These included the $30 Million Future Unallocated but also $3.8 Million for Stage 1 Municipal Precinct. Total available for Municipal Office Project is now $33.8 Million.New Expenditure

2019 ??? Officers briefed Administrators on Leongatha Hub which NOW seems to include a new Municipal Office Component.

Interesting observation-Officers seem to have included the $34 Million proposal into the Budget BEFORE they briefed the Administrators on the idea. Were the Administrators FULLY INFORMED on this project when they approved it in July 2019 at the budget meeting?

History Of The Municipal Office Project And How History Repeats

History of First Attempt.

The first attempt to have this project included in Council budget was in the 2012-2016 Council. The $30 Million appeared as unallocated roads and later on it appeared as finance for the Municipal Office Project.

The debate in 2015 showed two divergent views at Council. One group, the majority block approved this project but three Councillors fought against it.

The new Council removed the Project and all references to it from the Budget and Council Plan early in 2017.

History of Second Attempt.

An amount of $3.8 Million for Municipal Project and $30 Million Unallocated Future Funds were included in the Budget approved by the Administrators in July 2019.

These two entries within the Budget were NOT included in the draft budget put out for consultation with the Community in April 2019. They were NOT included in the budget papers until AFTER the Councillors were dismissed.

Without being in the Council Plan or the previous year’s budget Officers recommended their inclusion within a week of Council being dismissed and approved of by the Administrators.

The public were unaware of these significant changes and were not made aware by Council.

On BOTH occasions it seems that Officers/Administration included the funds without consulting with the ratepayers and indeed apparently without telling the Councillors at the time either.

Below is the Record from Council Minutes showing the briefing session on the Council Offices.

Council

Return of the Municipal Office Project

Dec 10, 2023 Carpe Diem

Leongatha Memorial Hall Feasibility Study

Council has begun work on developing a business case and feasibility study for the redevelopment of Memorial Hall that looks at current and future use, multi-use, demographics, population growth, service, service levels, heritage, redevelopment models, constraints, benchmarking with other population centres, demand, impact on small towns, accessibility, and whether operational costs can be supported and maintained.

The business case would also consider the relationship between other halls and venues both within and outside of the Shire, including the Foster War Memorial Arts Centre.

Council states that a strong case for State Government and Commonwealth Government support and contribution towards capital works can only be made if underpinned by a solid business case that has a forward projection extending over 25 years.

Council’s Infrastructure Planning team initiated the development of a business case and feasibility study in 2023/2024 in consultation with relevant stakeholders including the Arts, Culture and Visitor Economy department.

The feasibility study is supposed to investigate the Memorial Hall building as a performance space and theatre as detailed within Council’s 4 year plan.

The tender documents however suggest another plan is in mind by the officers. Those documents indicate the name of the study as “Leongatha Memorial Hall Precinct Feasibility Study”.

A precinct is not confined to the Memorial Hall but is a larger area so a bigger project not indicated by the Council 4 year plan 2022-2026.

When one reads the documents more closely it can be seen that a second building site is proposed on the adjoining property to the Memorial Hall and specifications in the tender documents indicate a proposal for the redevelopment of the current Council offices on that site along with various inclusions making the total project approximately 3 times the size of the Memorial Hall area.

History of the municipal office project

Back in the 2012-2016 Council term the administration inserted a $32 Million project into the budget and hid it from ratepayers. The information on this project was released to the ratepayers via a letter to the editor in the Sentinel Times written by then Cr Don Hill who is now editor of South Gippsland Voices newspaper. The community then reacted strongly against the imposition of this $32 Million project and the newly elected Councillor group at the 2016 election voted to remove the project in 2017.

But the officers were not done. They quietly worked behind the scenes awaiting their opportunity and in June 2019 the administrators approved the administration’s budget papers which included start up cash for refurbishment of the current Council offices in Smith Street Leongatha. This led to a complete gutting of the ground floor space and reconstruction of the internal areas. As part of this improvement, they managed to make the external windows so that people could not view the officers at work inside as could be done in the past. You could say they made the Council less transparent to outside scrutiny!

After the internal fit out at a cost of a few million dollars a tender was put out in 2023 for the external revamp which is currently being assessed. Maybe another million here.
As part of the 2020-2024 Creative Arts Plan an assessment of the Leongatha Memorial Hall was to be conducted. This review was to explore and develop a business case and feasibility study for the redevelopment of Memorial Hall that looks at current and future use, multi-use, demographics, population growth, service, service levels, heritage, redevelopment models, constraints, benchmarking with other population centres, demand, impact on small towns, accessibility, and whether operational costs can be supported and maintained.

Officers began work on this in 2023 and in August Councillors spoke of this too.

Council put out a tender in November 2023 and added more detail to the assessment. It now included the buildings and space adjoining the Memorial Hall and the specifications for the tender now included Council offices, the Council Chamber and Council meeting rooms as well as adding in a Leongatha Library and first time mentioning of a community hub like the new Korumburra Hub which would also include other community facilities in addition to the Council offices and library.

So, the cat is now out of the bag. Let’s explore this project further.

Leongatha Theatre Investigation morphed into a Leongatha Theatre Complex morphed into the Municipal Office Hub-confirmed by Council tender

South Gippsland Shire Council is seeking expressions of interest (EOI) from suitably qualified consultants to undertake a Feasibility Study and prepare a Business Case that will review and provide recommendations for the future use, design and service model for a
new Leongatha Memorial Hall Precinct.

Expressions of interest are sought from consultants well experienced in undertaking feasibility studies and preparing business cases for the development of regional hubs incorporating Performing Arts, Library and Cultural facilities.

The Heritage Victoria listed Leongatha Memorial Hall and former Shire Offices is located in the heart of Leongatha on the corner of McCartin Street and Michael Place. Constructed in the 1920’s the building consists of a large brick, hip roofed public hall fronted by two storey Free Classical façade and single storey wings to either side, terminating at the corner with an engaged colonnaded rotunda and returning North along Michael Place in a single storey classical facade which fronted the former Shire Offices.

The Memorial Hall element of the building is still in regular use with other elements of the building being utilised as the Council Chamber, Meeting Rooms and Community Spaces. The site also contains a central courtyard and public toilets. One of a small group of Shire buildings erected in Victoria as war memorials, it is the largest single memorial erected in the Shire to commemorate the First World War. Council states the Leongatha Memorial Hall is due for asset renewal and Council’s Arts & Culture strategy recognises the hall as the most appropriate site for development into a performance space within the municipality. These two factors along with ageing community infrastructure and a desire to consolidate services and provide multi-functional buildings within the municipality are the underlying principles behind the project.

The proposed Leongatha Memorial Hall Precinct currently containing the Council Chambers and Council meeting rooms will include a two storey Community Hub element (approx. 880m2 footprint) including such area as a Library, Community Spaces, community meeting rooms and public toilets whilst providing updated theatrical capability in the Heritage listed Memorial element of the project (approx. 900m2).

Other key elements for the project will include the interaction with the existing street scape, public amenity and parking requirements.

The proposed timeline

In November the tender was put out for consideration. The timeline for the project is as follows:

Invitation Issued 25/11/2023
Invitation close date 19/12/2023
Closed Tender process early February 2024
Closed Tender closes early March 2024
Ideal Project start Early April 2024

It appears that the construction phase is included in the tender exploring the feasibility study. Those shortlisted in this inital phase could take part in a closed tender for the works which seem scheduled to start April 2024. Either way, the timeline does not appear to show a period for public consultation of the project which would not be designed until March 2024 at the earliest.

On the above timeline it would seem Council would need to approve the successful tenderer in the March Council meeting and give the public a couple of weeks to view it in early April before work begins.

The possible cost to date

The council set aside something around $4 million for the internal refurbishment of the main offices in Smith Street and another 1 million perhaps for the external currently under tendering.

An additional amount equal to the internal fit out was within the budget a few years ago before they closed down the 15-year capital works program details from being included in the annual budget papers. This amount was for a municipal precinct. So maybe $9 million so far.

In this year’s budget an amount of $9 million has been set aside for buildings (not the Korumburra Hub) and another $1 million for historical buildings so if this is included total of $19 million so far.

After a contract is awarded and as they do not have a firm figure for the whole project works additional amounts could be included in next year’s budget so final cost is unknown at this stage.

Toilet problem for Council

A glance at the property title boundary on the map above shows the toilet block attached to the Council building appears to be located outside the title area. Further investigation shows the toilet block to seemingly be located on McNamara’s Place which is a road. Normally buildings built off the property cause planning problems so we asked Council planners about this and they said please put the questions in writing and we will consider them and get back to you. No response has been received from Council to date.

The property area showing McNamara Place
indicated in pink along northside of Council buildings

Additional proposed development area including the “outhouse” toilet block seemingly located smack bang in the middle of McNamara Place and not within the Council building land.

Council

Local Laws Officers handing out lemons for grass longer than 75mm

Dec 4, 2023 Carpe Diem

Council’s local laws team have been active during the month of November sending out letters of demand to owners of vacant lots across the shire. The letter received by someone in the farm zone near Toora, states that the letter is a courtesy letter to remind the owner to maintain their property and keep the grass short.

The letter goes on to explain the property owner must slash all grass, weeds, and stubble so that it is no higher than 75mm above the ground level. The letter then references the current local law as follows:

Clause 11 of Council’s General Local Law 2014 states: “An owner or occupier of the land must not allow or permit the land to be kept in a manner which:

(a) Is unsightly or detrimental to the general amenity of the neighbourhood or;”

Clearly there is no mention of 75mm in the local law and even in the proposed draft local lemon laws Council is progressing now, the grass length proposed is suggested as 300mm.

The letter then goes on to make threats of $200 for unsightly land, failing to comply with a notice from Council $200, and ongoing contraventions may end up in the magistrate’s court.

An example of Council staff making up the rules as they go when they try to enforce an arbitrary grass length in farmland. The letter ends by stating that officers will be pro-actively inspecting properties they deem vacant land during December and people may be issued with an infringement notice.

Council

Cr Clare Williams the new Mayor of South Gippsland Council-Does it pass the pub test?

Dec 1, 2023 Carpe Diem

With the appointment of Cr Clare Williams to the position of Mayor of South Gippsland questions are being asked about conflict of interest with regard to the Mayor’s husband’s company Hugh Patrick Pty Ltd T/A BJ’s Earthmoving.

Whilst the new Mayor has stated on several occasions at Council meetings that she is comfortable that she does not have a conflict at Council she has excused herself on many occasions declaring a conflict of interest when her husband’s company submits a tender for Council contract.

The Mayor enthusiastically supports increased spending on Capital works projects and as Deputy Mayor has attended functions in Canberra where Council and she lobbied various ministers and public servants for amongst other things, increased support for capital works projects within South Gippsland.

We sought information from Council on the awarded contracts during the period 2018-2023 and have shown this information on page 6 of this issue. The data shows that the Mayor’s husband’s company has done remarkably well over this period of time being successful on 16 occasions gaining contracts with a total declared awarded value of close to $13 Million dollars.

Since Mayor Williams was elected to council her husband’s company has won 6 contracts to the value of around $6 Million dollars. This amount awarded over 2 years is as much as was awarded in the prior 4-year period, so company is doing much better of late.

When companies involved in earthmoving, roads, and associated works are considered it can be seen in the pie chart on page 6 that Mayor William’s husband’s company has gained 28% of the $46 Million awarded for such works.

There is no suggestion that anything illegal or in breach of Council governance laws has occurred but when a single company gaining such a large share of Council’s contract spend has his wife as the Mayor, questions are needing to be asked and answered.

We asked the Mayor for her comments but she chose to not respond.

Editorial comment:

It is our view that Councillors should not be benefiting to the tune of millions of dollars of ratepayers funds through private business arrangements with Council. The perception of possible conflict is just too high even when no wrong-doing actually occurs.