A FINE issued to a boatie parked at Rye boat ramp was a mistake, Mornington Peninsula Shire mayor Cr David Gill has conceded.
“The error was made by a local laws officer and it will be quickly sorted out,” Cr Gill said.
The $81 fine for supposedly “failing to pay a fee and obey instructions on a sign” drew scorn from Futurefish Foundation director David Kramer. (“Fine adds to boat ramp confusion” The News 21/5/19). It followed a statement by Cr Gill that the shire had stopped processing boat ramp fees.
Mr Kramer said “the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing when it comes to the shire charging boat ramp fees. This is just unacceptable in this day and age of technology for shire officers to be handing out fines”.
At that time Cr Gill said the issuing of the fine was probably caused by uncertainty over the state government’s “ill-thought promise to take over the management of the peninsula’s boat ramps” made on Channel 31’s “Talking Fishing” TV show in the lead-up to the November state election.
The promise has since undermined the council’s capacity to charge parking fees and issue fines until management of the launching ramps is taken over by the new Better Boating Fund in spring. (“Spring takeover for boat ramps” The News 5/6/19).
The state budget included $47.2 million to “work with local councils … to abolish boat ramp parking and launching fees, upgrade boating infrastructure and boost safety”.
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 18 June 2019
