By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
A COMMUNITY association will fold if it has to pay costs for a lost appeal against a service station planned for Drysdale, a member has confirmed.
The Independent revealed last week that Drysdale Clifton Springs Community Association had lost its bid to void the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) costs order.
The association was ordered to pay legal costs of $5500 by December to Caltex franchisee Milemaker Petroleum.
Milemaker, which had asked VCAT for $26,000 in legal costs, plans to build a service station at the junction of Jetty Rd and High St.
Community association committee member Patrick Hughes said the group would have to cease operating because it would be unable to pay the costs.
“We only get a couple of hundred dollars a year from member subscriptions,” Mr Hughes said.
“We’ll have to put all our efforts into this between now and 7 December when it’s due and it means all our other community activities will come to a halt.
“If we can’t really spend our time on community efforts there’s no real incentive for people to join.”
Mr Hughes said the association had sought clarification from VCAT on whether it was protocol to contact Milemaker directly with a request for the company to write off the $5500 as a gesture of goodwill to the community.
The association could still face legal consequences from the VCAT decision even if it did stop operating, he said.
“We don’t know whether the bailiff or the sheriff will come after us if we don’t pay.”
The association has the support of local federal MPs Richard Marles and Sarah Henderson, state Member for Bellarine and Environment Minister Lisa Neville, councillor Rod Macdonald and other community groups.
Ms Neville wrote to VCAT with a warning that any costs order against the group “would act as a serious disincentive for any like community organisation involving itself in a local planning matter, to the possible detriment of the community and the planning outcome”.
An independent online petition gathered 349 signatures in support of the group.
