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Wednesday 23 November 2022
5974 9000 or email: team@mpnews.com.au www.mpnews.com.au
Holland wins top job STEVE Holland is Mornington Peninsula Shire’s new mayor. Elected last Tuesday in a three-way tussle for the top job, Holland’s first speech was to call for cooperation between the shire and the community. Cr Debra Mar was elected deputy mayor. “Holland’s mayoral win followed by ‘whirlwind’” Page 7
Repairs, clean-up after deluge Liz Bell liz@mpnews.com.au MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire Council is facing a massive clean-up and repair bill after recent heavy rain caused landslips, flooded properties and destroyed made and unmade roads across the peninsula. The mayor Steve Holland said there had been landslips at Shoreham Beach, Beleura cliff, Mornington and Drum Drum Alloc Creek, as well as
McCrae, where eight homes were evacuated when land gave way on View Point Road. The Beleura cliff path, which has been earmarked for repairs since several landslips last month, is now closed after sections of it fell away on Monday. Holland said repairs were already underway on dozens of rain-damaged sealed and unsealed roads damaged, and Shire Hall beach, Mornington was closed until further notice. Some community services have had
to be relocated due to flood damage, including Mornington Community Support Centre, which has been able to offer services from the Mornington Community House (3/91 Wilsons Road, Mornington). The council has also dedicated a phone line for people whose properties have been impacted by the rainfall. By Tuesday last week there had been 220 calls for assistance with 72 direct reports being made via the Report a Drainage Issue on the shire web page.
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With more rain expected, Holland said council staff were on standby in case a relief centre was needed for people displaced by flooding. Holland said the frequency of rain events had increased over the past few years and the peninsula’s drainage system was not coping, He said it was not built to deal with the unprecedented levels of rainfall. But it wasn’t just stormwater that was ending up on people’s properties. South East Water‘s service delivery manager Simon Willis said severe rain-
fall in the early hours of Monday 14 November affected the sewer network across the peninsula, including Mount Eliza, Mornington, Mount Martha, Safety Beach, Dromana, Rosebud, Flinders, Shoreham and Hastings. “Our sewer network across the peninsula is designed with extra capacity for stormwater ingress during wet weather. However, the volume of rainfall inundation from this event was greater than our network was designed to handle,” he said. Continued Page 7
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