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Wednesday 21 August 2024
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Council sinks boat stack plans Keith Platt keith@mpnews.com.au
Delicious award for Tyabb producer TYABB farmer Cheryl McGaffin has won the Delicious - Harvey Norman award for all of Victoria for the category ‘From the Earth’. It is a follow-up to 2021 when she was not only the Victorian winner but also the national award as well.
The latter has not as yet been determined for this year. For over ten years Cheryl has been producing organically grown heirloom tomatoes at her farm in Tyabb and she has been supplying her produce to the top restaurants
on the peninsula and the city. During the season Cheryl also runs a subscription box for members of the general public who wish to buy direct from the farm gate. Picture: Supplied
PLANS to store up to 200 boats in four five metre high stacker sheds and build a 38 metre boat ramp at Western Port Marina, Hastings, have been rejected by Mornington Peninsula Shire Council. Councillors said the sheds could be built out of sight from houses in Skinner Street and away from mangroves that formed part of the UNESCO recognised Western Port Biosphere Reserve. Councillors voted against the proposed development on the Hastings foreshore despite senior planner Charlotte McGillivray recommending they approve it subject to some changes, including providing plans drawn to scale with dimensions. In a report to council’s Wednesday 14 August public meeting McGillivray said the extension to the marina was “considered acceptable … as it will maintain and expand an existing boating and recreational facility in Hastings and Western Port, which are identified in numerous policies and strategies as being of state and regional significance and of high economic value to the state in terms of their recreation and tourism value”. “The proposal is not considered to have any adverse effects on marine and coastal environment functions and processes given its location within a man-made coastal structure (reclaimed land for a marina). This area is not natural, and the land area is devoid of any environmental qualities,” she said. Residents of Skinner Street, Hastings, which overlooks the proposed boat shed site, disagreed. When speaking at the council
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meeting Ray Dart quoted council’s master plan which recommended treading lightly when building on the foreshore and being sympathetic to the coastal environment. “How can that be considered with a boat store nine metres high? It astounds me if that is sympathetic to environment,” he said. Dart said the majority of people in Hastings could not afford a boat and that he believed the proposed boat storage sheds would mostly benefit boat owners from out of town. Nina Williams said there was room for the boat storage sheds elsewhere in the marina, away from the mangroves which were part of the UNESCO-recognised biosphere reserve. Cr Susan Bissinger agreed, saying she could not believe the boat sheds were being considered on the foreshore. “It is not appropriate to put storage sheds right up to the mangroves and dwarfing the restaurant [next to the marina]. It’s almost horrific,” she said. “I just don’t get it. The area is ripe for opportunities to be made into something beautiful … [but] once the boat racks are there any opportunity to make this area community friendly is gone.” Cr Sarah Race, who unsuccessfully moved that the storage sheds be approved, “understood” there was a “lot of passion here tonight”, but said they would be part of a “working marina”. If rejected by council and taken to the Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal for a decision, the sheds would likely be approved as they were “coastal dependent infrastructure” and Hastings was a designated marine precinct. Continued Page 5