Day: March 3, 2014

WORK on the $16.3 million Somerville police station is finally underway following an official ground-breaking ceremony last week. The station, at the corner of Eramosa Rd West and Coolart Rd, is designed to accommodate 150 police officers and staff, and will include a uniform branch, highway patrol, crime scene unit and short-term holding cells. It will also feature public consultation and interview rooms, a mess room, changing rooms, gymnasium, administration areas and conference room facilities that can be adapted for emergency management. The 2500-square metre police station, which will operate 24 hours a day, is expected to be completed in…

ABOUT 2000 CFA volunteers from the Mornington Peninsula have been battling the open cut coal fire at Morwell. As the fire enters its fourth week, buses are leaving Moorooduc twice daily taking members of Peninsula and Western Port CFA groups to 12-hour shifts at the fire, which is forcing the evacuation of people from smoke-affected parts of Morwell. Firefighters were at first affected by carbon monoxide from the fire, but smoke and particles have now spread from the open cut to the town. The state government and health authorities have been criticised for not acting soon enough to issue health…

MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire attempts to keep service stations out of its green wedge appear to have failed. State Planning Minister Matthew Guy has ignored the council’s policy by approving twin freeway service centres on Peninsula Link at Baxter. This is despite council’s refusal of the plan in 2011 and the state planning tribunal VCAT confirming the knock-back in mid-2013. But the shire is not rolling over without a sound and will ask Mr Guy to reconsider his decision. Mr Guy has disappointed councillors and the shire’s executive team by approving an amendment to the shire’s planning scheme to enable the…