Month: September 2013

THE Environment Protection Authority has knocked back an application for a rubbish tip, or landfill, in the old Pioneer quarry on the Arthurs Seat escarpment at Dromana. It was announced on Friday morning with the EPA saying the proposal did not comply with “threshold issues around groundwater, construction design and management”. The decision is a blow to tip proponent Peninsula Waste Management and its owner R E Ross Trust as well as Mornington Peninsula Region Waste Management Group of which Mornington Peninsula Shire is the sole member. The waste group had earmarked the quarry as a potential tip site in…

Victoria Police is preparing to activate fixed speed cameras along Peninsula Link for the first time within the next two weeks. Six camera sites have been installed, with two point-to-point sections and three instantaneous detection points in each direction. Police are also issuing a warning to Peninsula Link road users after more than 7500 motorists were detected speeding during a recent 14 day live testing period. More than 500 motorists were detected travelling 15km per hour above the posted speed limit and 66 of those drivers would have lost their licences. Six drivers were detected hooning at speeds of 45km…

AN overzealous ranger who removed “anti-tip” signs from roadsides in Arthurs Seat, Red Hill and Dromana last Saturday has forced Mornington Peninsula Shire to issue a public apology. The shire posted a statement on its website on Sunday after receiving complaints from Peninsula Preservation Group members and other anti-tip sign owners. Shire officers delivered the signs to a PPG member’s home on Sunday. The statement said rangers would return a number of “no tip” protest signs “that were mistakenly impounded on Saturday”. Claire Smith, the shire’s manager of environment protection and community safety, said signs had been removed from “the…

CRIME on the Mornington Peninsula decreased slightly over the past 12 months, des­pite an almost 24 per cent rise in the number of rapes reported and a 51 per cent jump in sex offences. Also of concern was a 43 per cent surge in serious drug offences such as trafficking and manufacturing. Growing use of methamphetamine (also known as ice) was highlighted as the most significant drug issue. The latest Victoria Police statistics for the year to 30 June show the total number of crimes recorded on the peninsula fell 0.1 per cent from the previous year, compared to a…

POLICE are hunting a man and woman over the theft of a “much-loved family pet” from outside a home in Hargreaves St, Mornington, last week. Bailey, a small, white shih-tzu cross, was let out from the front yard of his home by his owners about 2.30pm on Monday and disappeared a short time later. Witnesses reported seeing a man and woman park their vehicles at either end of Hargreaves St in order to catch the frightened pet. “They were seen chasing the dog up and down the street until it was picked up by a passer-by, who then handed it…

An elderly man has had his license suspended after blowing more than three times the legal limit in Carrum Downs on Sunday night. The 85-year-old Seaford man was intercepted by members of the Frankston Highway Patrol in Ballarto Road just after 7pm. After supplying a positive preliminary test, the man attended the Carrum Downs police station where he allegedly returned an evidentiary reading of 0.18% Leading Senior Constable Scott Woodford from Frankston Highway Patrol said it was unusual to find a person of that age driving under the influence of alcohol. “It’s disappointing that people who obviously should know better…