FRANKSTON residents will be subject to stage three lockdown restrictions for the next five weeks. Premier Daniel Andrews last week announced that all metropolitan council areas would move back to harsher restrictions following a spike in COVID-19 cases. Neighbouring council areas Kingston and Mornington Peninsula are also bound by the newly imposed rules. The four reasons for leaving home under a stage three lockdown are to shop for food and essential items, caregiving, exercise, and to work or study. Some local businesses and services that had begun to reopen after the first lockdown will once again be forced to shut…
Author: Brodie Cowburn
THE owners of the Dingley Village Kingswood golf course site are considering their future plans after the state government released new guidelines for golf course conversions. The site was purchased by AustralianSuper in 2014 for $125 million. Plans to subdivide the land and build nearly 800 residential dwellings hit a major hurdle in late 2018 when Kingston Council voted to abandon the planning scheme amendment for rezoning (“Council tees off on golf course plans”, The News, 24/10/18). In June, the state government published their revised guidelines for the conversion of golf course land for other purposes. Those guidelines were shaped…
A NEW COVID-19 testing site has opened at Mentone Bunnings. The drive through testing clinic opened on Monday, 6 July, and will run from 9am to 5pm up until the end of the week. Coronavirus cases in Victoria have been rising sharply over the last week. Over 120 new cases of the virus were confirmed by the Department of Health and Human Services on Monday, taking the total number of cases statewide since the start of the pandemic to over 2600. In the Kingston municipality there are two residents with a confirmed active case of COVID 19. The virus has…
AN internal audit ordered by Frankston Council into their planning processes and any potential risk for corruption has been completed. Earlier this year, all councillors at the City of Casey were sacked by the state government after explosive allegations of corruption were made at a series of IBAC hearings. It was alleged that some Casey councillors had financial ties to developer John Woodman. In response to the scandal engulfing the City of Casey, Frankston Council ordered an audit into their own planning processes. Auditors reviewed applications dating back to January 2013. They searched for applications made by parties named in…
A CLUSTER of COVID-19 cases has broken out in Patterson Lakes. Of the 75 new cases of coronavirus confirmed in Victoria on 29 June, three were linked to a family outbreak in Patterson Lakes. The Department of Health and Human Services reports that there are currently seven residents living in the Kingston municipality with an active case of coronavirus. The total number of positive COVID-19 tests recorded in Victoria stands at 2099 as of 29 June. The number of positive cases returned per day has jumped significantly in the last week. Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton said “we…