Frankston
GET YOUR
FREE TV GUIDE INSIDE!
An independent voice for the community
Your weekly community newspaper covering Frankston, Frankston South, Karingal, Langwarrin and Seaford
FREE
DOWNLOAD 3MP FROM THE APP STORE OR GOOGLE PLAY
Tuesday 11 June 2024
For all advertising and editorial needs, call 03 5974 9000 or email: team@baysidenews.com.au www.baysidenews.com.au A CONCEPT for a potential future at Olivers Hill.
Disneyland Frankston is ‘viable’ A VICTORIAN MP has declared that Frankston is one of the “best locations” for a Disneyland theme park in the southern hemisphere. He is urging the state government to contact Disney to get the project up and running. See story page 5. Photo: Gary Sissons (picture digitially manipulated)
Council cuts climate ties without consultation Brodie Cowburn brodie@baysidenews.com.au FRANKSTON Council has decided to end its membership with the South East Councils Climate Change Alliance without undergoing community consultation. Frankston Council passed its 2024/2025 budget last Monday. Councillor Suzette Tayler raised more than 30 late changes to the budget at last week’s meeting - the approved changes will see council withdraw from SECCCA and allocate funding to other climate change projects. Other late changes included allocating $145,000 for works at the Centenary Park Golf Course toilets, and awarding a $40,000 grant to the Sand-
hurst Club to be dispensed equally over the next decade. Funding for an emergency relief fund and improvements to Lipton Reserve, Gamble Reserve, Lloyd Park, Ballam Park, Carrum Downs Recreation Reserve, and Ferndale Drive Reserve were also added into the budget last week. The lengthy alternate motion was not included in the published agenda prior to the 3 June meeting. Some councillors said they only received the alternate proposal the night before the meeting was held. Councillor Sue Baker took issue with the late changes. She said she felt “blindsided” by the proposal and walked out of the chamber before the budget went to a vote.
“I feel I have been a proactive contributor to the budget process. I’m very committed to getting it right, recognising it’s not going to suit everybody and satisfy all councillors, but we have engaged in a process,” Baker said at last week’s meeting. She said the lengthy late changes are “not conducive to that collaborative, transparent, open approach which should involve the community with a number of different opportunities to comment on the content.” Approximately $3 million has been shifted around in council’s budget through the late changes - around $657,000 of that redistributed money is scheduled to be spent in the 2024/2025 financial year. To fund the changes, mon-
ey has been diverted from the local park upgrade program, the Forest Drive drainage pipe relining program, the Peninsula Reserve Oval 1 sports lighting project, the Banyan Fields pump track and playspace, and the Frankston Park masterplan implementation. Councillor Tayler said that the council should withdraw from SECCCA so it can focus its spending on its own climate projects. “My alternate does recommend not to continue with SECCA because we now have a climate strategy. We are working towards real tangible actions that are identified in the climate strategy, not an extra layer of bureaucracy,” she said. “Residents need positive outcomes
from councillors. I believe the alternate is in the best interest for our community.” The decision to withdraw from SECCCA, a coalition of nine Victorian councils which undertakes climate change projects, was not unanimous. Frankston councillor Claire Harvey serves as the SECCCA chair - she said “I just can’t accept that this would go through as a last minute alternate”. “This is a significant decision that needs community input,” she said at last week’s meeting. Harvey expressed concerns that the numerous late changes could put council in breach of the Local Government Act 2020. Continued page 7