MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire councillors have voted to bring back joint planning meetings after they were scrapped without notice early in the current council term. The decision was made following advocacy from Cr David Gill who put up a notice of motion calling for the return of the regular joint statutory and strategic ward planning meetings that previously kept councillors informed about planning issues and permit applications in their wards. These meetings, once held online every four to six weeks, were quietly discontinued at the start of the current council term following the October 2024 elections. Since then, councillors have received…
Browsing: Mornington Shire Council
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire deputy mayor Cr Paul Pingiaro has reaffirmed the council will not exceed the state’s three per cent rate cap or future rate caps, after cutting its ten-year projected deficit from $296m to $3m. The deficit cut was announced in the shire’s Financial Plan 2025-26 to 2035-36, adopted on 30 October, which also forecast a $67.2m cash balance by 2035, up from $3m projected last December. The dramatic turnaround has prompted questions from residents about how the deficit was achieved, what financial measures were used, whether rate rises would be applied, and if the changes could affect core…
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire has pulled off a dramatic financial turnaround, cutting its projected ten-year deficit from $296m to just $3m in less than a year. The change follows councillors’ adoption of the shire’s ten-year Financial Plan 2025-26 to 2035-36 at their public meeting on 30 October. The plan now forecasts a $67.2m cash balance by 2035 – a significant shift from the $3m cash deficit projected last December. The new plan includes financial levers to guide council decisions on long-term sustainability, which will also be “considered in detail” through the annual budget process. Key findings reveal that from the fifth…
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire councillors have endorsed a draft Somerville Recreation Reserve master plan, paving the way for much-anticipated improvements to the community sporting hub. The endorsement was approved unanimously at the 14 October council meeting. Over the years, clubs have collaborated with the council as well as state and federal governments to explore the creation of a community sporting hub at the reserve. In December 2022, the initiative received a boost with $250,000 in state government funding through the Local Community Sport and Recreation Projects Program. The funds were earmarked for the construction of new cricket nets and the development…
FOOTPATH trading fees will be scrapped for the next 12 months across the Morning Peninsula, giving businesses a huge boost as part of the shire’s new footpath trading policy.The decision was endorsed at the council’s 14 October meeting, marking the first major update to the shire’s footpath trading policy since 2008. The 12-month “amnesty period” means all application fees for outdoor trading will be waived as the new policy is rolled out.According to the shire, the move aims to revitalise town centres, give street-front businesses more flexibility and encourage vibrant, welcoming public spaces. “By waiving permit fees for the next…
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire is rebooting the way it delivers youth services, moving from an in-house approach to a new hybrid model which relies more on external providers.The decision comes after a scheduled service review found low engagement levels and questions around whether council was best suited to deliver youth services directly. “The engagement’s low and there’s probably two reasons for that. One is maybe the service isn’t as good as it could be, and the other one is people just don’t know about it,” Mayor Anthony Marsh said.“We absolutely acknowledge that there’s a role for council to play, but in…
A MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire councillor has drawn the ire of a stalwart of local government on the peninsula, with his suggestion that no councillor should be allowed to serve more than three terms (12 years) in a lifetime.Brian Stahl OAM, who served a total of 12 years in two stints in the Shire of Hastings (1987 – 1994) and then again in Mornington Peninsula Shire (2003 – 2008) decried the shortsightedness of the motion, and what he sees as the politicisation of council that led to it.At the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council meeting on 23 September, Cr Bruce Ranken moved…
MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire councillors have voted for the shire’s CEO, Mark Stoermer, to prepare and present a “Climate Resilience Plan” to council, replacing the Climate Emergency Declaration and the Climate Action Plan that they scrapped in April.The shire’s previous Climate Action Plan was adopted in August 2020, one year after the shire declared a climate emergency. The plan entailed a ten-year program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lessen the effects of climate change.The newly elected council first questioned the plan in January this year with a motion passed for shire officers to prepare a report to help councillors make…