Group fights $30m works

Andrew Mathieson
A PORTARLINGTON community group has lodged a submission against the “sale and alienation of public land and space” on the site of a proposed safe harbour project.
Friends of the Bellarine Hills has taken its fight over a proposed $30 million Portarlington marina to a Victorian parliament select committee on public land development. The inquiry will run public hearings into the use and development of public land and open space for private development.
Members of the Bellarine hills group expressed concern in the submission about the potential loss of public assets as well as the impact on bay views, the pier and its small harbour.
“What many residents fear from this over-development is a loss in the existing integrity of the town,” the group said in its submission.
The group said the initial plans to redevelop the Portarlington pier changed after Parks Victoria had let the structure fall into disrepair.
The project began “only” as a redevelopment of the pier but in 2007 the proposal resurfaced as a development of the “entire foreshore”, the friends group said.
Public consultation in July outlined a range of commercial ventures that could accompany a foreshore redevelopment. The friends group feared the commercial component could hurt existing traders in the town.
“It should be pointed out that shops on the foreshore are an unnecessary anachronism and an affront to existing businesses in Newcomb Street, which struggle to keep going in winter and do not need this sort of competition,” the submission said.
The friends group said the proposed project would privatise the pier and foreshore to ensure Parks Victoria was no longer responsible for maintenance.