THE Mornington Peninsula should be excluded from the metropolitan “lockdown” areas to prevent infected outsiders coming in, Shire mayor Cr Sam Hearn said last week. He fears residents from hard-hit areas of inner-Melbourne may interpret the “one-region” status as a “reason to travel to the peninsula and inadvertently put our local community health containment at risk”. Cr Hearn was speaking after the state government reintroduced stage three COVID-19 restrictions and included the peninsula as part of the Greater Melbourne urban area. Television news bulletins on Thursday showed hordes of visitors making the most of the warm weather in peninsula towns…
Author: Stephen Taylor
LITTLE is known about a man tipped into the back of a garbage truck at Rye last week, but Mornington Peninsula Shire staff do not believe he is homeless. The 21-year-old who appeared to have been asleep inside a green 240-litre bin can thank an alert garbage truck driver for his quick thinking, Monday 29 June. The driver hit the emergency stop button when he saw on his CCTV monitor what appeared to be a man falling out of the bin into the garbage compactor in Tarawill Street, 8am. The mayor Cr Sam Hearn said later: “We are grateful the…
PENINSULA Grammar made 13 non-teaching roles redundant in a major staffing shake-up before the resumption of the second term. The school has also abolished the position of deputy principal – wellbeing, held by Peter Ford. The cuts were foreshadowed by news that the Mt Eliza private school’s student numbers were being “greatly impacted by the global pandemic”. Principal Stuart Johnston said that he had “made the difficult decision to commence a staff consultation process that will potentially impact” staff numbers. The 13 jobs lost were four in the marketing department, seven in administration and two in property (school productions and…
PROPERTY manager Nichols Crowder is lobbying Frankston and Mornington Peninsula councils to help landlords and tenants by deferring property rates and dropping marketing levies. Director Michael Crowder says councils, banks, utilities, insurers and governments “should be waiving or freezing payments – interest free – in line with the mandatory code-of-conduct”. “In this way the costs a [landlord] saves can be passed on directly to their tenants.” Mr Crowder wrote to the councils asking them to waive the marketing and promotional fund levy for commercial businesses. Mornington Peninsula Shire had not responded by Friday 1 May, but Frankston Council refused to…
THE first sites of Telstra’s 5G network on the Mornington Peninsula are now up and running. The switch-on follows completion in March to upgrades of the telecommunication company’s mobile sites. Sorrento, Blairgowrie and Rye join parts of Melbourne, and several regional locations, where the 5G rollout has started. Telstra currently reports 5G coverage in Seaford and areas of Frankston. Telstra regional general manager Loretta Willaton said the roll-out was a “game-changer for locals and businesses”. “It will provide Telstra customers using 5G devices with higher speeds, lower latency, and greater capacity, especially in peak times when the network can be…