CONSIDERATION of charges against a business allegedly operating as a restaurant contrary to the Mornington Peninsula planning scheme have been delayed until at least next February next.
A mention hearing of the charges brought against the Green Olive at Red Hill by Mornington Peninsula Shire were deferred in Dromana Court last week.
The charges relate to the alleged use of the land for a “restaurant” and development of the land contrary to the planning scheme and approved permits.
The charges were filed with the court in December 2019, more than four years after a report about shire councillors being urged by local laws officers to seek an enforcement order through the Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) against the Green Olive of Red Hill for not complying with its operating permit (“‘Restaurant’ disappears as shire steps in” The News 29/6/15).
The Green Olive was on a 10 hectare block while under the planning regulations no restaurant can operate on land under 40 hectares.
Within days of The News publishing details of the confidential briefing to councillors the word “restaurant” had been replaced by “farmshop” on the Green Olive and visitmorningtonpeninsula websites.
In 2008, owners Sue and Greg O’Donohue were granted a permit for “primary produce sales” and “manufacturing sales” after presenting plans that showed a small sales counter and tasting area in an existing shed.
Council officers said Green Olive had “a substantive menu of food and drink” prepared by two chefs in a commercial-sized kitchen served in an area equipped with 80 chairs.
In June 2015 Mr O’Donohue told The News that he and his wife did not run a restaurant.
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 24 November 2020
