Letter to the Premier from Jane Garret

Letter to the Premier from Robin Scott

Update on the Petition

Just an update on how many people have now signed the petition and what has happened to the signatures.

2287 have now been tabled in Parliament.

Additionally, there are a further 236 in the electorate office that have come in this week

So now over 2,500 have signed the petition!

Kind Regards

Danny Michell - Electorate Officer
Office of Jane Garrett MP - State Member for Brunswick

Ceres Autumn Harvest Festival this Sat 31 Mar.

Come down to the Ceres Autumn Harvest Festival this Sat 31 Mar. We will have a stall setup so that you can find out more about the BTS 66 issue and sign the petition.


http://www.ceres.org.au/Harvest

Brunswick terminal battle: Moreland calls in legal eagles

BY CHRIS HINGSTON

20 Mar, 2012 04:00 AM

MORELAND City Council will urgently seek legal advice to reverse the Brunswick Terminal Station expansion.

The council wants to explore options should it decide to fight Planning Minister Matthew Guy's decision to approve the terminal upgrade.

Moreland City council will also ask Yarra and Darebin councils for support on the decision to seek legal counsel.

Last month Mr Guy approved the $271 million terminal expansion, rezoning the land from residential to special use.

Mr Guy said the decision ensured the security of electricity supply to Melbourne's inner-east and the CBD.

Proposals to upgrade the terminal station had twice been rejected by Moreland City Council's planning committee.

Last week the council agreed to allocate up to $5000 to seek counsel on the legality of Mr Guy's decision, to see if any options existed to fight the expansion.

The motion was put forward by South Ward councillor Lambros Tapinos, who said he was shocked and appalled by Mr Guy's decision to rezone the land.

"What the minister has done is effectively change the rules," he said.

Yarra City mayor Geoff Barbour said all funding requests would have to be considered at a council meeting.

"Yarra has plenty of its own planning battles but we know many of our residents are concerned about this one on our doorstep," he said.

"If we are not able to provide funding for the legal advice, we will continue to support the community campaign in other ways," he said.

Mr Guy's office declined to comment.

LINK TO ORIGINAL MELBOURNE TIMES ARTICLE

Moreland Council Takes Action On BTS Rezoning

Congratulations to Moreland Council for taking a strong stand about the rezoning of the BTS site. At the March Council meeting on March 15 it took a decision along the following lines:

Moreland City Council is shocked and appalled at the decision made by the Victorian Planning Minister, Matthew Guy, on February 15 2012 to unilaterally rezone the Brunswick Terminal Station site from 'Residential 1', to 'Special Use Zone' giving the go-ahead for the Terminal Station's redevelopment and quadrupling of its capacity. Moreland City Council, as the statutory planning authority, has twice considered and rejected this planning proposal due to environmental, health and community concerns and as it is a totally inappropriate development in a residential area and bounding the Merri Creek Linear Parklands.

The rezoning of the site has the intent of preventing any further administrative or judicial review. As this decision removes Moreland City Council as the planning authority, Council must determine what future actions are open to it to prevent this totally inappropriate development from taking place. Therefore it is moved:

"i) that Council seek a Legal Opinion, as a matter of urgency, from a suitably and experienced Legal Counsel about the legality of the Minister's decision and to establish if there are avenues Council can realistically pursue. An amount of up to $5,000 be allocated for such an Opinion. Council will then decide on any future action it may take based on this Opinion.

ii) the neighbouring municipalities of Darebin and Yarra border on the Terminal Station site which also adversely impacts on their residents. Moreland Council calls on these 2 neighbouring Councils to join with Moreland in seeking a Legal Opinion about the legality of the rezoning and invites them to contribute to the cost of the Opinion thereby making it a joint undertaking of the 3 affected inner-urban Councils on behalf of their residents. A letter encompassing this preamble and motion should be sent by the Mayor to Darebin and Yarra Councils requesting their involvement.

iii) Up to 2 representatives of the Merri Creek Residents Group be invited to participate in the preliminary briefing of the Legal Counsel.

iv) a copy of this preamble and motion be sent to Jane Garrett MLA, Kelvin Thompson MHR, Fiona Richardson MLA, Adam Bandt MHR, Jenny Mikakos MLC, Shadow Minister for Planning Brian Tee MLC and the Merri Creek Residents Group."


While this may not be the exact wording of Council's resolution, it is expected to be close. Hopefully the Residents Group will be hearing from Council soon. People who know Darebin and Yarra councillors should be encouraged to urge these 2 cities to join Moreland's initiative.

Letter to the Premier from Kelvin Thomson (Labour Member for Wills)