MORE than 500 people including senior police, politicians and community leaders, packed Mornington’s Peninsula Community Theatre last week in an overwhelming show of support for the campaign to turn the tide against family violence. Emotions ran high and many a tear was shed as the audience heard shocking details of the effects family violence was exacting on the community. The forum, organised by recently formed community group Peninsula Voice, featured speeches by Rosie Batty, Police Commissioner Ken Lay, Domestic Violence Victoria chief executive Fiona McCormack, and Rodney Vlais from Men’s Referral Service and No To Violence. Peninsula Voice president Peter…
Day: September 22, 2014
THE Graham Pittock conflict of interest case, now concluded, has pulled the focus squarely on to the deep dysfunction afflicting Mornington Peninsula Shire Council over the Southern Peninsula Aquatic Centre. The case began with a 2012 allegation of conflict of interest – anonymous, as is allowed, to the secretive Local Government Investigation and Compliance Inspectorate – and ended last Friday with a fine and costs order. Almost a modern-day “Jarndyce and Jarndyce”, for those who read Dickens. For more than two years Cr Pittock was prevented from voting on the financially huge and physically expanding SPA, such is the cracking…
A MAN reportedly “died twice” on the Sorrento-Queenscliff ferry last Friday afternoon before being revived by crew members using a defibrillator. He was breathing when taken by air ambulance to the Austin Hospital and admitted in a critical condition, according to an Ambulance Victoria spokesperson. The ferry had moved only metres from the Sorrento wharf when the man, 50, collapsed with an unknown medical condition, prompting the crew to swing into action. The ferry was backed into position as two ambulances and the air ambulance arrived within 14 minutes to treat the man, who is said to be from Melbourne.…
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire has apologised for labelling a business planning to build a sports and trampoline centre on the southern peninsula “a scam”. The company, Peninsula Jump, announced via Facebook in July last year that it planned to open a fitness and sports centre on the peninsula which would also include a large trampolines zone. A lack of visible progress by the business has led critics on Facebook to criticise Peninsula Jump for a perceived lack of transparency. Peninsula Jump also launched “a non-profit arm” last November called Miracle Fund to raise funds for charitable causes. Council’s economic development manager…
THE state government is under fire over secrecy surrounding an agreement for a major commercial development with Point Nepean National Park. The Nepean Conservation Group and Nepean Historical Society has accused the government of keeping the community “in the dark” on critical details of the plan which includes a 99-year lease over the Point Nepean Quarantine Station to a Portsea property developer. And the National Parks Association of Victoria is “deeply concerned” about the creation of a “private enclave” within the national park. It says the public will have to pay to use most of the “facilities and activities” in…