Pakenham Gazette - 13th March 2024

Women celebrated

Women made their voices heard last week as local organisations came together to celebrate InternationalWomen’s Day.

Cardinia Council hosted a successful event onThursday 7 March to highlight the strengths and achievements of local women.

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Lang Lang cop push

Lang Lang’s police presence has hit the State Parliament’s agenda, with a local MP backing community calls for more cops as crime is reported to have risen by almost 80 per cent.

Eastern Victoria MP Melina Bath took the issue of a manned police station in Lang Lang to Parliament last Tuesday 5 March, calling on the Police Minister to respond.

“Nine years ago, Lang Lang’s valued one officer police station was reduced to a one day a week, part time service,“ Ms Bath said.

“Listening to locals, I understand that there has been an escalation of disturbing incidents, including open drug crime, break ins, vandalism, and reckless driving.“

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Funding call

La Trobe MP Jason Wood has hit out at the Federal Government for their decision to cut $200,000 in funding towards local aged care respite centre Fernlea Community Care.

Mr Wood visited the Emerald centre on Tuesday 5 March to speak with clients and executive team members.

“Despite the need for more funding than ever, the Albanese Government’s policies have left Fernlea with a $200,000 cut to their annual funding,“ he said.

“I will be taking up this shocking decision with the Aged Care Minister and calling on the government to reverse this cut and invest a further $500,000 to keep up with local demand.“

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Broken promises

By Corey Everitt

Years of unfulfilled promises and a seemingly endless blame game between council and developers has marked the proposed Officer town centre, which remains largely a ‘paddock’ after a decade of little development.

On the matter, Cardinia Shire Council optimistically revealed that a new crop of developers have bought land after previous landowners chose not to build.

However, a South East developer is less enthused, emphasising issues of restrictive council decisions and a lack of commercial demand

in Officer that may not see the town centre developed for even more years.

For Ray White Officer Sales consultant Gavin Staindl the matter is frustrating as blame is thrown around with little progress.

“Some people will blame the council, the

planners or the developers, but at the end of the day, nothing gets done,” he said.

“It’s frustrating, five years ago we were promised this huge town centre, but nothing has happened.”

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