Wheel opponents: City tilted process

Andrew Mathieson
RESIDENTS fighting plans for a giant ferris wheel on Geelong’s waterfront yesterday accused City Hall of intervening in the submission process.
The Independent revealed last week that more than 40 nearby Eastern Beach households had lodged objections against the proposal to erect the 45-metre “skywheel” on a strip of Ritchie Boulevard.
Objectors’ spokesperson Christine Oughtred said residents in England and Corio streets within 100 metres of the proposed site would face “intolerable” nightly light and noise from the skywheel.
A sailing school housing students overnight would also be just 10 metres from the tourist attraction, she said.
“Up until now we have tried to be fair and reasonable but we seemed to be undermined by council all the time,” Mrs Oughtred said.
“It’s been difficult because council seems to be really subverting the whole course of it.”
Mrs Oughtred said City Hall staff pressured a representative of nearby Royal Geelong Yacht Club into withdrawing a petition against the skywheel.
A City officer told the representative it “would not be in your best interests” to submit the petition as part of a submission against the proposal, she said.
Objections to the ferris wheel from sailing school operator Mike Denny during a public hearing also failed to appear in a council report on the proposal, Mrs Oughtred said.
“The whole way through they haven’t followed due process,” she said.
“We’ve been patient and all we want is for them to follow appropriate guidelines and be fair.”
Mrs Oughtred said the residents’ group was not against promoting Geelong’s waterfront attractions but demanded a different location for the skywheel.
“We’re after a win-win situation here,” she said.
Residents had approached the Costa Group about using a parcel of land near Cunningham Pier and away from residential areas.
But Mrs Oughtred said council rejected the company’s offer to accommodate the skywheel instead sticking with plans to put the attraction on Ritchie Boulevard.
“The residents are so pro-Geelong that we have welcomed so many events and we’re all very keen on having them here but this is something very different,” she said.
“It’s a huge, permanent structure with strobe lights going at all times of the night.”
In response to Mrs Oughtred’s claims, City major projects general manager Stephen Wright said council had followed “all due processes” and he was satisfied with the outcome.
“Local residents and traders had been given extensive opportunities to provide feedback on the project and had done so,” he said.