Western Port
Features inside
Western Port
realestate 26 February
2013
FOOD AND ENTERTAINMENT
PAGES 32–33 WESTERN PORT FESTIVAL
PAGES 34–35 Think bigger
WESTERN PORT SCOREBOARD
PAGES 39–41
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26 February bruary – 4 March 2013 3
MPNEWS (1300 676 397) or email: team@mpnews.com.au www.mpnews.com.au
The show went on Festival goes ahead without permit
Festival fun: Five-year-old Tristan Aylward runs off an inflatable slide to find more rides during Saturday’s Western Port Festival. More pictures by Cameron McCullough Pages 34, 35.
By Mike Hast HASTINGS’ Western Port Festival on the weekend operated without a permit from Mornington Peninsula Shire. The 45th festival was a success, according to organisers, but the three days before the event were hectic and stressful as the festival committee struggled to fulfil permit requirements set at the 11th hour by the shire’s events department. Crisis meetings, frantic phone calls and mixed messages from the shire soured the run-up to the Friday evening opening. The News understands permit requirements were tightened after WorkSafe inspectors upbraided the shire for breaches at the Australia Day celebration at Mornington Park. They included marquees not tied down correctly and exposed scaffolding at the rear of the music stage. Western Port festival chairman Steve Hosking said the shire sent a list of requirements to organisers on Tuesday, three days before the opening. Concerns included insufficient or non-complying fences; lack of waterfilled barricades and risk management strategy for the mini-motorbikes show; variable message signs installed late to warn of High St closure for the parade on Saturday; lack of plans for toilets, water and first aid; and incomplete insurance documentation. Two days later, with some conditions not met, the festival was at risk of being cancelled. The committee held a crisis meeting on Thursday night, which was attended by Cerberus Ward councillor David Garnock but no one from the shire’s events department. Cr Garnock said the shire was committed to the festival going ahead.
“At no stage has anyone said to me that they don’t want this event to go ahead,” he told the meeting. The meeting was told all requirements were to be fulfilled by 11am on Friday, a deadline that was extended at least twice during the day. If permit conditions could not be met, the committee needed to prepare a plan about how to cancel the festival. Steve Hosking was ropeable: “To have this thrown at us at the last minute is disgusting. “It’s almost like somebody doesn’t want this [festival] to go ahead.” On Monday, Mr Hosking said the festival had been organised by a new committee that was not formed until October. The committee had thought the shire’s events department was going to help pull the festival together, but this had not occurred. He said David Garnock and festival secretary Ross Topham had sat down with a shire events officer late last year to work through permit conditions. The committee thought it had met all requirements. “After the Thursday meeting, Hastings MP Neale Burgess, who was at the meeting, had organised 60 waterfilled barriers,” Mr Hosking said. “At 5pm on Friday, an hour before the festival was due to start, Cr Garnock said the shire had refused to issue the permit, known as a Places of Public Entertainment (POPE) permit.” Cr Garnock had asked the shire if the event would have to be cancelled. “We were told that it could go ahead if safety measures, security and insurance were all in place, which they were” he said. Continued Page 9
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