Author: Brodie Cowburn

THE bid for an A-League football team based in south-east Victoria has been turned down by Football Federation Australia. The Team 11 bid was aiming to gain admission into the A-League for the 2019/2020 season, and was widely considered to be a frontrunner before the FFA announcement on 13 December. The proposal for the side centred around the construction of a rectangular stadium in Dandenong, which would have required over $100 million in government funding to be completed. Ultimately, the state government did not make a public commitment to building the venue. The bid was backed by Frankston Council and…

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FRANKSTON Councillors voted unanimously on 10 December to turn down an extension for a planning permit on 6 Davey Street. On 10 November 2014, councillors voted to approve the construction of a seventeen storey dwelling for “accommodation and office use” on Davey Street. The initial condition of the permit was that construction must have begun within two years. After the passing of that initial two years, the developer Steller were granted an extension until late 2018 to get started. The permit expired on 17 November 2018, with construction having not begun on the project. A request was made to council…

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FREE “house seat” tickets to the Frankston Arts Centre taken by Frankston councillors since the November 2016 election have surpassed a total value of $10,000. Council and council officers were previously able to access free house seats for the venue without any cap or limit. A cap of eight tickets per year was introduced at a 22 October council meeting. Figures seen by The Times show that Cr Steve Toms has claimed the most free tickets since the November 2016 election, attending 26 shows in the last 18 months. The total value of those tickets declared as taken by Cr…

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RECYCLING Company Replas has been recognised with a business of the year award at the Melbourne Business Awards Gala in Mordialloc. Kelvin Agg territory manager accepted the award on behalf of the company. “Replas has been around for 28 years. We manufacture recycled plastic products. We work with Red Cycle, which is a program that collects all the soft plastics through Woolworths and Coles’ collection bins. We use that soft plastic that would be destined for landfill or the ocean, we use it as a percentage of our cake mix for the products that we make,” Mr Agg said. “We…

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KINGSTON Council have approved a $182,000 grant for a project that would see young children who have lived through family violence work with robots during therapy sessions. The “Little Sparks to Bright Minds” therapy program aims to help kindergarten and early primary aged children through the recovery process after family violence experiences. The program, supported by the Emerge Women and Children’s Support Network, will see robots called “Matilda” working with therapists and teachers to keep children engaged during one on one therapy sessions. The robots were developed by Professor Rhavij Khosla from La Trobe University. Emerge executive officer Paula Westhead…

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