Western Port
West ern Port
1 August 2017
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5973 6424 or email: team@mpnews.com.au www.mpnews.com.au In his sights: Leading Senior Constable Barry Judge waves down a car along Balnarring Rd, Tuerong. Picture: Yanni
Police focus on rural roads for speedsters TRAFFIC cop Barry Judge had been manning the radar gun on Balnarring Rd, Tuerong, for about one minute on Thursday when his first speedster flew by, seemingly oblivious to the 80kph limit. The Somerville Highway Patrol officer was out enforcing police Operation Hisser, whose focus is on reducing speeds on peninsula rural roads with limits of 80kph or higher. Hisser’s first week netted 120 motorists speeding, two drug-affected drivers, four unlicensed drivers, one suspended driver and seven unregistered vehicles. “We get a lot of speedsters who say, ‘But it used to be a 100kph limit on this road’, which it was before being reduced to 80kph,” Leading Senior Constable Judge said. Speed limits on the peninsula’s long, two-lane rural roads have been cut “for a reason.” “If the $1 billion Peninsula Link Freeway, with its rope-wire barriers and two lanes in each direction is a 100kph road, then it is nonsense to suggest that the same speed limit is OK on a rural road where the only thing that’s going to stop you in a disaster is a 100-year-old gum tree,” he said. Continued Page 5
Crackdown plan for ‘party’ houses Stephen Taylor steve@mpnews.com.au MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire has vowed to crack down hard on the owners of rowdy “party” houses – all too common in Rye and Rosebud – whose guests can make weekends miserable for neighbours. Loud music, bad language, yelling and anti-social behaviour late into the night, as well as parking problems in
previously quiet streets and rubbish piled up outside, have had residents up in arms and seeking tougher controls. Environment protection manager John Rankine told last week’s council meeting the shire had 24,000 holiday homes, which included 3000 Airbnb rentals. These had generated 87 complaints from neighbours over the past 12 months. “These [concern] a very small proportion of the Airbnbs but they have a significant impact on our community,”
he said. “We are commencing with a negotiation process and we will speak to the owners. The crux [is] that we are making the owner responsible for the noise – not the occupier at the time because they are transient and it is too hard to take action against them. “We have the cooperation of Airbnb to have the particular property delisted.” Complaints from residents are more frequent during summer. Angry Rye resident Howard Dare told Radio 3AW on Friday morning
that a drunken guest from a nearby party house in February had “threatened to kill me” when confronted about noise. Mr Dare said the house with pool and deck had been used continuously over summer, and one weekend saw 29 cars parked out front. The owners say they stipulate that parties are not allowed, but that was hard to supervise. “One day in February the group there was intoxicated and making lots of noise. I rang the owners and they told the guests who had complained and
one of them came out into the street and said he would kill me.” A 20-year-old woman came out to apologise and admitted there were 20 people inside. Noise from a buck’s party on another weekend continued until 3am. Although quieter in cooler months, the house is active “most weekends” at up to $800 a night, and continuously over summer when the owners can charge up to $1500 a night. Continued Page 11
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