PS: a new application has just gone in for a 7 storey, 24 dwellings in Centre Road, Bentleigh. A few doors away from the 9 storey application on the old Broadbent’s site. Because they can – THEY WILL as long as the planning scheme is without direction, without clear policy, and without any review!

Adding more insult to injury, it appears that ratepayers are now footing the bill to fix up the mess that developers leave as a result of their constructions. In response to a public question asked at last council meeting on who is paying for road reconstruction at 2 Morton Avenue, Carnegie, the response was:

In recent years, property development in the street has resulted in various utilities
excavating the road pavement to access underground services. On each occasion,
the utilities repaired the road, most likely at the developers cost to Council
standards. The end result of all this work, however, was a patchwork of repairs. In
addition to the repairs, sections of the road pavement had begun to fail due to
general wear and tear. To address the patchwork of repairs and to remedy the
failed sections of pavement, Council recently removed the road surface in the
affected area and applied a uniform patch. These final works were undertaken by Council’s Asphalt Crew at Council’s cost.

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Speaking of cost, here is another example of how to waste money defending the indefensible. Councillors responded to Wynne’s kick up the backside letter by ordering more ‘investigations’ into VCAT decisions. How many hours of officer’s time will be devoted to this? How much will this little exercise in futility cost? And why can’t this time be spent in drawing up worthwhile amendments to the planning scheme so that VCAT has some real guidance on planning applications? Thus, more ratepayer funds wasted on maintaining the illusion that all blame can be laid a the door of VCAT instead of council’s planning failures.

1st dec