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)

Support for resident summit with Premier on Brunswick Terminal Station

08 March 2012

Yarra Council is calling on the Victorian Premier to meet with residents who are deeply concerned by the Planning Minister’s approval of an expanded electricity substation in Brunswick.

Mayor Geoff Barbour said Council had resolved at its meeting on Tuesday night to write to Premier Ted Baillieu requesting that he meet with representatives of the Merri Creek Residents Group to discuss the community impacts of the Minister’s decision.

Cr Barbour said while the electricity substation was in neighbouring Moreland, many Yarra residents were concerned about the potential health and environmental impacts of expanding the substation.

“We don’t think it is asking too much for the Premier to sit down with residents and really listen to their concerns," Cr Barbour said.

He said Yarra Council was horrified that the Planning Minister had intervened to approve a controversial development that had been refused by Moreland Council.

“Councils are the best barometer of how a community feels on an issue, so to override a Council decision is to override the community’s wishes,” he said.

Read the story in full here.

Call for Volunteers

The NOBTS66 campaign is seeking volunteers to help IMMEDIATELY with distributing petitions and collecting signatures. We have a list of schools, kinders, cafes and other organisations along the transmission lines and in the local area that need to be contacted and have petitions dropped off. If you can spare an hour or more of your time it would be GREATLY appreciated. Please call Liz Shackleton directly on 0415 824 593 or email liz.shackleton@mac.com if you are able to help.

Also we are currently printing up NOBTS66 campaign posters so you will soon have the opportunity to purchase one and put it in your front yard (or wherever else you wish!) This is the time to make your views known – it’s NOT SAFE, NOT RIGHT and NOT ON!

Finally thanks to all those residents who turned up at super short notice for filming of the Channel 7 news story on Saturday. It made a big impact and the footage is getting sent far and wide.

The Merri Creek Residents Group

Letter to the Premier from Adam Bandt

Adam Bandt has written to the Premier. Read the full letter by downloading the pdf here
Dear Premier,
Re: Brunswick Terminal Station
Residents in the northern part of my electorate of Melbourne have expressed to me their dismay and concern about the decision on 15 February of the Victorian Minister for Planning to rezone the land on which the Brunswick Terminal Station is located and approve the building of a new 66kV terminal station.

Channel 7 TV News coverage

To see the Channel 7 news coverage of the No BTS 66 campaign click the link below

http://au.news.yahoo.com/video/national/-/watch/28495970/residents-show-own-power/

Government claims debating the BTS issue in Parliament ‘a waste of their time’

The Minister’s decision to rezone the BTS and allow the development to proceed was ‘debated’ in the Upper House of State Parliament earlier this week. While Labor and Greens members took the disallowance motion seriously, it is clear that Government members treated the whole issue as an annoyance, and us – their constituents – with contempt. The Minister didn’t even bother to speak on the issue, his comments restricted to interjecting when other members were speaking and encouraging Liberal members to turn the debate into a farce. See full transcript below (if you can bear seeing how appalling the level of ‘debate’ is in our State Parliament). In summary, Opposition Spokesman for Planning, Brian Tee moved a motion to disallow the Ministers decision, and this was supported by Greg Barber (Greens), Jenny Mikakos (Labor) and Nasi Elasmar (Labor). Naturally the government won the vote at the end of the ‘debate’ given they have more members in the Upper House.

However before voting, Government members ridiculed Labor members for bringing this matter before Parliament, claiming that such a tedious issue should be dealt with at Council or VCAT (didn’t they know it already had been rejected by Council, and the Minister stopped it from going before VCAT?) and that they had more important things to be debating. They also claimed that it was fully acceptable for residents living near proposed Wind Turbines to have power of veto if they lived within 2km of such a facility, but that residents living in Melbourne’s inner north had no such rights when it came to electricity terminals and high voltage transmission lines and that we were raising this as a frivolous issue to waste their time – and that Labor members were ‘scaremongering’. Of greatest concern is the number of times that Government members claimed the Regulatory Test Process had thoroughly investigated the issue and shown that there was a ‘net benefit’ from siting the new terminal at the BTS. The Reg Test shows no such thing – merely that it is the most cost effective option (which remains debatable) when you don’t take into consideration any environmental, health, safety or amenity issues.

This ‘debate’ shows just how much contempt the Minister and his colleagues have for local residents and Moreland Council – and only reaffirms our resolve to stop this bad decision being implemented.
Chris Black

Read the first debate here - http://bit.ly/xwnchT

Debate adjourned and then resumed here - http://bit.ly/zlzg96