By KATH GANNAWAY
THE VCAT hearing to determine whether Healesville will have a further injection of electronic gaming machines will continue on 22 May.
Pink Hill Hotel Pty Ltd is appealing a decision by Yarra Ranges Council that refused a planning permit for the installation of 30 EGMs at the Terminus Hotel.
The company was granted a gaming licence by the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation last year.
Evidence began on 29 April with Pink Hills, Yarra Ranges Council and a number of community representatives including Healesville resident and former Yarra Ranges Council Ryrie Ward representative Jeanette McRae, Healesville InterChurch Care Inc. Executive Officer Kerri Goding and Healesville resident and business operator Dale Prentice putting across their arguments.
Mr Prentice said he had a long-standing opposition to pokie machines and had worked in the past with anti-pokies campaigner the Reverend Tim Costello.
“I believe that these machines unfairly play on poorer communities and will lead to serious issues in our community,” he said.
He said however he also had a concern that was closer to home with four boys growing up within 300 metres of the venue.
“My family spends time at the railway station park, and I don’t want my children to grow up thinking gaming machines are part of everyday life,” he said.
He said the introduction of 30 additional machines in Healesville, and the fact that ratios were spread across the entire Yarra Ranges shire would mean that Healesville within a 10-kilometre radius of the venue would have somewhere between 9.9 and 12.5 machines per 1000 adults.
The tribunal allocated four days for the hearing, but was unable to get through all the evidence, and has allocated a further hearing day on 22 May.
