New group vows fight over Heads

Andrew Mathieson
A NEW Barwon Heads community group has joined a public campaign to fight plans against further residential development in the seaside towns.
Save Barwon Heads Alliance had its inaugural public meeting on Tuesday night in response to Geelong council’s decision to incorporate private land into a draft structure plan for the town.
The amendment would effectively move the town boundaries further west, paving the way for a population increase.
Save Barwon Heads Alliance spokesperson Elissa Ashton-Smith said the group was advocating the conservation of valuable environmental and coastal assets.
She said the alliance believed that further expansion would harm sensitive environmental surrounds at Murtnaghurt Lagoon and destroy Barwon Heads’ unique village atmosphere.
“It’s been on the cards in a lot of ways that, as a coastal town, our environment is under a lot of pressure,” Ms Ashton-Smith.
Residents last week galvanised together at a Barwon Heads Association meeting to voice similar concerns.
Barwon Heads ward councillor Peter McMullin, who mooted changes to the structure plan, defended council at both meetings amid a community backlash.
The alliance and members of the community resolved at Tuesday’s meeting to demand that councillors vote against expansion of the Barwon Heads town boundaries “at the earliest opportunity”.
Residents also expressed anger against a private developer willing to build the 250 lots on the edge of Barwon Heads.
The structure plan calls for another 300 blocks over two developments.
Council could call on the State Government to re-zone the land from rural to residential to gain approval for the expansion.
However, Ms Ashton-Smith said expanding Barwon Heads’ town boundaries would be contrary to State Government’s coastal spaces policy.