Southern Peninsula
Features inside: SUMMER HOME & GARDEN PAGES 12 – 13 HOLIDAY ATTRACTIONS
PAGES 36 – 41 FOOD & ENTERTAINMENT PAGES 42 – 45
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10 January - 23 January 2012
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Fire safety bungle Traffic issues rule out reserve fire refuge at Red Hill
Sit back, relax and watch the boat TWO Mornington Peninsula businessmen want to take away the worry of owning a boat anchored in the bay or at a marina. Matthew Gordon and Byron Miller, above, have produced a device that continually monitors conditions aboard the boat and uses the internet to make this information accessible to owners
and security companies. Bilge water levels, pumps and battery levels can all be checked electronically, while cameras can record anyone climbing aboard, or just provide a deskbound boat owner with a glimpse of what might be. See ‘Men who stare at boats’, Page 8
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corded his response as “... a Neighbourhood Safer Place in Red Hill will be considered by the officers�. Red Hill Recreation Reserve was previously approved twice in the three-stage designation process, but was later knocked back when the CFA strongly opposed sharing the 20-hectare site with residents. The minutes of the Mornington Peninsula Fire Management Planning Committee meeting on 3 October reveal that municipal fire prevention officer Damien Taylor stated that the shire feared that four-wheel drives towing “horse floats, etc� would put an “extra load� on police dealing with traffic at the reserve if it were a NSP. The minutes record Mr Taylor saying that police “have a priority to guard CFA’s security� and that they are required “to look after pets at relief centres. If you get people that decide that their [bushfire plan] doesn’t work� they are “going to bring their animals there and they have to be dealt with�. Mr Taylor then moved that the Red Hill reserve be rejected as a NSP. He had been recorded in the minutes as stating earlier: “I have been told to put forward to this committee for a decision [sic].� In an email to this writer, Mr Taylor referred to the minutes, stating they “are not an accurate reflection of the meeting’s discussion�. The mayor Frank Martin, who is also Red Hill Ward councillor, said the “stance had been taken� by CFA and Victoria Police not to permit the reserve to be used as a “place of last resort�. Continued Page 11
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By David Harrison RED Hill, McCrae and Balnarring will have no Neighbourhood Safer Place this bushfire season because of council decisions. A Mornington Peninsula Shire fire management committee meeting on 3 October endorsed Balnarring and McCrae as so-called NSPs – three days after the statutory deadline to have council approval for them had passed. The fire committee described McCrae Plaza and Balnarring shopping centre as “fairly low bushfire risk� and therefore suitable. But Red Hill’s large, two-oval recreation reserve, site of the famous Red Hill market, was refused endorsement as a NSP despite a shire pledge to provide one either at the reserve or elsewhere in Red Hill. It was refused because its top oval – less than 20 per cent of its area – is used as an emergency staging area by the CFA and other agencies. Allowing it to be used as a NSP could create “traffic management issues�, the committee ruled unanimously. The committee decision was an about-face on a shire promise made more than a year ago. On 8 November 2010, in answer to a question from this writer at a council meeting, the shire’s director of sustainable infrastructure, Alex Atkins, told councillors that “Red Hill is one of those areas where a Neighbourhood Safer Place will be designated – not necessarily at the sports reserve, but could well be�. Despite this unambiguous public statement, the meeting minutes re-
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