Western Port
Western Port
realestate 29 July 2014
Your guide to what’s on this weekend for peninsula families
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Tuesday 29 July 2014
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Vandals destroy school garden NO sooner had pupils from St Brendan’s Primary School in Somerville finished their garden project than vandals came and destroyed it. Designed as part of an environment and sustainability program, the “vertical garden” was a credit to their care and attention, with plastic bottles collected and the tops cut off, beds laid and seeds sown. Their parents had helped, too, and by Friday things were ready to grow in Austin Rd. But a trio of teenage boys drinking in the school grounds on Sunday night changed all that. Principal Sue Carr said footage on the school’s CCTV cameras shows them starting their rampage slowly, then building into a frenzy of destruction and destroying all the children’s hard work. “It was heartbreaking for the children on Monday when they saw that not a thing was left,” Mrs Carr said. “Their garden didn’t even last a week.” Unwanted after-hours visitors are a problem at the school, with staff regularly having to clean up bottles and cigarette butts on Monday mornings, Ms Carr said. Plans for a school orchard are now in abeyance. “We’ll have to decide whether to do it now,” Mrs Carr said. “We want to teach the children resilience; we want to make it work.” The size of the school grounds is a problem with the cost of secure fencing unaffordable. The CCTV images of Sunday’s vandal attack have been taken to Hastings police. “It’s tragic that the pupils’ hard work was undone by others,” Sergeant Simon Noonan said. Stephen Taylor
All gone: St Brendan’s pupils show where they had their “living wall” before it was destroyed by vandals. Picture: Gary Sissons
Record f ield for Red Hill poll David Harrison david@mpnews.com.au RED Hill ward voters will have a shire record 17 candidates to choose from when they cast their ballots for a new councillor on 23 August. The long list of names on the ballot paper is seen as a major win for the democratic process which in 2008 saw candidates in six of the then 11 single-councillor shire wards returned uncontested.
Former Red Hill councillor Frank Martin entered council unopposed that year. He faced two opponents in 2012, one of whom is standing again this time. He resigned recently because of ill health. This election’s huge field is a disparate group, including two former councillors, a retired County Court judge, an accountant and a microbiologist. The poll result could have several profound consequences for Morning-
ton Peninsula Shire. With Red Hill ward vacant, councillors are stalemated at five-all on crucial issues, including the site for Rosebud’s proposed Southern Peninsula Aquatic Centre (SPA). The new Red Hill ward councillor opposing building SPA on the foreshore, or opposing building it at all, could kill the project. More generally, the long 6-5 dominance of the councillor group led by David Gibb and Anne Shaw could
end, opening up a more collegiate voting era in what has, on major issues, such as development, been a bitter division of views. Cr Martin was on most issues a Gibb-Shaw ally. Several candidates have already expressed concern about the shire’s financial strategy, especially the growing debt burden, which is being exacerbated by the spiralling cost of the SPA. The recently approved 2014-15 shire budget scraped in by five votes to four over concerns about borrowings.
WHAT’S ON AT NEPTOURS
Which School?
BRAKES
Largest Stock List on the Peninsula
Pine, Cypress, Blue Gum and Native, we remove them all one to 1000s. We can even mulch scrub gorse sweet pittosporum etc
At Bayside Christian College teaching is more than a job - it is a ministry. Find out more by contacting (03) 59716 709 or www.baysidecc.vic.edu.au
Tree Removal Specialists
HASTINGS 2049 Frankston Flinders Road Ph: 5979 2100 www.autopro.com.au
0431 303 513
LES MISERABLES *CROWN CASINO – MONTHLY* Casino’s bus program with a Wed 3rd Sept great BUFFET lunch (all) $35. (matinee) (a) $105 (p/s) $95 Only persons over the age of SHOWBOAT 18 permitted. Wed 20 Aug - all $140 LAST THURSDAY EACH MONTH MATTHEW BOURNE’S SWAN LAKE QUEEN VICTORIA MARKET Wed 22 Oct (matinee) Tue 12th Aug - all $30. (a) $120 (p/s) $115 Shop for all the bargains we do not have down here. We HEALESVILLE SANCTUARY even supply a couple of Eskys Tue 11 Nov for some of your perishables. Adults $70 (p/s) $60 (ch) $50 ITALIAN MASTERS (NGV) Tue 26 Aug (a) $60 (p/s) $55
STRICTLY BALLROOM Wed 28 Jan ‘15 Adults $125 (p/s) $110
Neptours Phone: 5987 2011
www.neptours.com.au
At the 2012 election less than 70 per cent of eligible voters – 8516 of the 12,349 (now 12,509) – cast a vote, 198 of them donkey votes. As was the case then, some 4000 eligible voters live elsewhere, most of them in Melbourne’s leafy eastern and southern suburbs. Canny candidates are writing to these voters, who comprise nearly one-third of the Red Hill electoral roll, to maximise their election prospects. Continued Page 4
Hastings Home Decor
Paint, Auto, Marine & Wallpaper Spa’s from $1195, pools from $3495
Pool & Spa Showroom plus Servicing Surf Hardware & Ding Repairs NOW AGENTS FOR ELGAS Agent Present this Voucher for 10% Discount Unit 3/1907 Frankston-Flinders Rd, Hastings ph 5979 4597