Council rejects plan for community land

TASS Holmes has vowed to continuing her fight for better playground facilities in Millgrove.
Yarra Ranges council voted on 22 August to reject a proposal by Ms Holmes that it buy a block of land next to McKenzie-King Drive Reserve.
Ms Holmes argued that the privately owned block, which was fenced off in July, had been used by the community for many years and should remain in community use.
She gathered 630 signatures on a petition requesting the shire buy the land and said she was disappointed the wishes of so many Millgrove people had been ignored.
Ms Holmes had called on the shire to buy the land under its Open Space Strategy 1998. But in its report to the council, the shire’s planning department said the land met only one of six conditions set down for consideration under the strategy.
The report also said two areas of shire-owned land in Ronald Grove were available for public recreation. Ms Holmes said the areas, which she said were shaded, weed infested and swampy.
Ms Holmes said she would continue to investigate legal options to challenge the council’s decision and was taking her case to the Minister for Local Government. She said she was frustrated by what she called a lack of any formal appeals process.
“Basically I have been told by the Ombudsman, ‘It’s not our bag’, and I have just kept coming up against closed doors,” she said. “I have been advised there is no way around it and options such as going to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), even if that is available to me, are too expensive.”
Failing any change of decision by the shire, Ms Holmes said she would lobby to get other land made useable for recreation.