Councillors have voted unanimously to abandon the Amendment seeking to achieve a social/affordable housing component for the Caulfield Village development. What is staggering about the ‘debate’ is:
- Every single councillor carefully avoided use of the word ‘abandon’
- Residents would be hard pressed to decipher council’s position on the officer recommendations, especially when Delahunty made such repeated comments as ‘we will not give up’ plus labelling the MRC as ‘disgusting’.
- Not one single councillor addressed the issues raised by the Planning Panel letter and why council is unable to respond to these legal issues. Was further legal advice even sought?
- Not one single councillor even mentioned the issue of the MRC’s attempt to tinker with the boundaries to the Mixed Use precinct and how this was also an integral part of the proposed amendment. What happens now on this issue is anyone’s guess.
- Instead we got heaps and heaps of chest thumping about how important social housing is and barely a word on the amendment itself and why it should be abandoned except for ‘we don’t have the controls’. This was never itemised, spelt out, or even discussed.
- Significantly, Esakoff (one of the gang of 4 who accepted the Incorporated Plan) did not speak.
For those interested in listening to the discussion, we’ve uploaded it below.
Glen Eira Debates 
May 2, 2018 at 10:33 AM
Disgusting is right. Could only listen to ten minutes of this rubbish. If they at least tried I could forgive them but no. The same thing over and over. When it comes to the racing club they grovel and bow and give them everything they want.
May 2, 2018 at 11:41 AM
Not bad. A few million windfall for the MRC thanks to these gutless wonders.
May 3, 2018 at 4:39 PM
Council doesn’t care either about pedestrians in the C 60 area with footpaths like a maze… pedestrians just advised to take other side, Who cares if pedestrians miss the train for their Sydney train or are late for school and work as long as it is all OK for Beck Builders and the greedy the profit seeking MRC ti withstand the current conditions of reaching the Caulfield Station.
May 8, 2018 at 1:38 AM
I guess it just shows how impotent and irrelevant Councillors are in any of our planning processes. A good lawyer would now say get it in writing for Stage 3.
When it comes down to tin tacks I really don’t think any of these Councillors give a damn about affordable housing. Surly the planning bureaucrats have a case to answer to here, what was their involvement in this failure, was it deliberate failure and who profits from this outcome.
The Royal Commission into Banking has uncovered a well feathered nest of self interest and crime. I really think we need a royal commission into local government. There is just to much money on offer here with development and contracts. I’m fairly sure a good look into local government would find much the same corruption and freelance wealth transfers as in the financial sector . After listening to these Councillors they are just naive cover-up artists able to string some feel good words together.
Cr. Sztrajt mouths “we are going to take action” “who’s we” is the question, the bureaucrats! the State Government!. These guys are dreaming.
Did any of the Councillors ask for a report into what actions could be taken