By NOEL MURPHY
TORQUAY’S red shirt brigade is rallying the troops for a new fight against opening Spring Creek for housing.
Protesters took to social media on Wednesday as soon as Surf Coast Shire released an independent panel report calling for Spring Creek Valley to be rezoned for urban growth.
“We will be calling a council of war,” 3228 Residents Association spokesman Sid Pope said.
“Talk to everyone you know, it’s time to demonstrate that we are not a community to be taken for granted, walked over or disregarded.”
Mr Pope said Planning Minister Matthew Guy, South Barwon MP Andrew Katos and Premier Denis Napthine should all consider themselves on notice.
Council will consider the report for its recommendation to Mr Guy on a proposed C66 planning scheme amendment to guide Torquay’s growth.
Surf Coast councillor David Bell, who Christian College gagged with legal pressure from speaking or voting on C66, said the panel had “taken a dim view” of community efforts to move the planning focus away from Spring Creek.
“Pull out the red shirts if you are outraged by this carve-up of the Spring Creek Valley,” he exhorted protesters, referring to the distinctive shirts hundreds wore in rallies objecting to plans for thousands of residents on the land, west of Duffields Rd.
The panel report to council identified controversial Christian College plans for the area as separate to the C66 scheme but said no impediments were preventing planning for the project to go ahead immediately.
The long-running fracas over Spring Creek has included large community protests, legal threats against councillors voting on the issue, shire officers at odds with councillors and controversial State Government decisions to halt and then re-consider housing.
The proposed C66 changes include multiple ways of tackling growth stress in Torquay and Jan Juc, including neighbourhood character studies and a retail strategy, but the most contentious has been the proposed rezoning of land for one kilometre west of Duffields Rd for urban development.
Council can now either approve all, some or none of the report before sending it to Mr Guy or abandon the C66 amendment altogether.
