By John Van Klaveren
Drysdale residents claim City Hall officers “railroaded” them during a public planning panel hearing into a proposed service station development.
Drysdale Clifton Springs Community Association’s Neil McGuinness said community opinons were vetoed when the officers failed to follow proper meeting protocol.
Mr McGuinness said he successfully moved an amendment from the floor for a VicRoads assessment of the proposed service station’s Jetty Rd exit but City Hall officers had since rebuffed the request.
Fellow Drysdale resident Bob Penfold backed his claim, saying Mr McGuinness clarified the VicRoads request several times at the hearing.
An officer co-ordinating the amendment discussion “finally agreed to Neil’s VicRoad’s assessment proposal”, Mr Penfold said.
“My big disappointment with the whole meeting was that there was no clear monitoring of this sort of important detail. I mentioned early in the meeting that some sort of minutes or record of the discussion should be taken but the reply was that it was not in council’s rules to do it.
“They did not want to listen and actually did nothing in response to what we all said – we completely wasted our time.
“Neil’s point tried to address an important potential road hazard and should have been accepted but it didn’t appear in the permit approval information.”
City Hall planning manager Peter Bettess denied the panel agreed to the amendment.
Mr Bettess said council was unable to review the application because it had already approved the permit.
Residents could appeal to Victorian Civil and Administration Tribunal, he said.
