Chelsea • Mordialloc • Mentone
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127
Wednesday 19 February 2025
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Who speaks for the trees? BRONWYN Currie from Kingston Residents’ Association, Bronwen Biggs from Kingston Conservation and Environment Coalition, Travis Howell from Mordialloc Beaumaris Conservation League and Rosemary West from Kingston Residents’ Association gathered at Groves Reserve on Monday (17 February) to survey the damage caused by tree removal. See ‘Trees removed at Groves Reserve’ - Page 3 Picture: Supplied
Tension tees up with Rossdale Brendan Rees brendan@baysidenews.com.au Kingston Council is locked in a bitter stalemate with Rossdale Golf Club over its plans to redevelop its Aspendale course after council declared it would use its powers to enter the golf course for survey work. The club has been working towards a rezoning and sale of the club golf land to fund a relocation to a new and more contemporary course as the club
was not profitable enough to remain viable at its current home. For the past 12 months Rossdale said it had been seeking to engage the council on the rezoning of the club’s privately owned land and “has been refused any reasonable opportunity to do so”. Instead, the council has been pushing to undertake an environmental audit of the biodiversity of the area, with requests having been made since late last year.
But the club has knocked back the council’s offers “on the basis that it would prefer as a first step the opportunity to discuss the full plans for the course with the council including proposed environmental initiatives”. “The club also offered to supply its biodiversity reports to the council for review. These offers have not been taken up by the council,” the club said in a statement. But the council has refused to bow to the club’s position and has now
taken the extraordinary step in saying it would exercise its powers under the local government act to enter the golf course, despite being refused permission from Rossdale. The council said it had previously communicated to both the club and the community, and that it remained “determined to undertake this important work”. Kingston mayor Georgina Oxley said a thorough environmental assessment was an “essential step” before
any talks began on the golf course’s future. “Sometimes tough decisions need to be made to act in the best interests of our community,” she said. “We have let the Rossdale Golf Course know Council will be entering the site to conduct an important environmental audit. We had tried to work with them, but after several refusals, we were left with no choice but to enact our powers to enter the site.” Continued Page 3