RESIDENTS of Kingston Council’s Melaleuca Ward will go without a local councillor for four months. Melaleuca Ward councillor Tess Law resigned from council in late March. Law became embroiled in controversy earlier this year after a failed attempt to install herself on the CEO remuneration committee. After proposing the change to the committee in February, the matter was deferred to the March meeting “pending verification by officers of Cr Law’s qualifications and experience”. The motion put forward by Law in the February agenda read that the former councillor held “postgraduate qualifications in performance management, strategic staffing, workforce capability, workplace relations,…
Author: Brodie Cowburn
FRANKSTON MP Paul Edbrooke has been promoted to the state government’s cabinet, picking up three newly created portfolios and assuming the role of minister for consumer affairs. Edbrooke will also act as the state’s first ever minister for men and boys. He has also been appointed minister for cost of living, and minister for renting. Carrum MP Sonya Kilkenny has had her significant role on the frontbench further expanded. She is now the minister for violence reduction and minister for finance, in addition to her existing roles as attorney-general and planning minister. Mordialloc MP Tim Richardson, who was previously parliamentary…
PARENTS at Skye Primary School say that urgent road safety improvements are needed near the school after multiple dangerous near-misses. Skye Primary School is located on busy Ballarto Road. Skye Primary School’s school council has written a letter telling the state government saying that the current traffic conditions around the school are risking the safety of young students and their guardians. “The situation at our parent car park has reached a crisis point. During pick-up times, there is regularly a long line of cars waiting to turn left into the car park, creating a dangerous bottleneck on Ballarto Road. This…
A VCAT decision to remove a long-planned hospitality space from the Mentone Hotel redevelopment has been labelled “deeply disappointing” by Kingston Council. Late last month, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal granted a permit to applicant Mentone Bayside Corporation Pty Ltd to replace the planned hospitality space with two apartment dwellings. The decision overrides a settlement agreement reached in 2018 which allowed for the site redevelopment to proceed with a requirement for a food and drink premises. The published VCAT decision read that Mentone Bayside had “applied to the council for permission to amend the permit to replace the food…
EDITHVALE-Aspendale Junior Football Club is calling for the urgent redevelopment of its clubrooms to improve accessibility. The junior football club now hosts nearly 900 players a season at its Glen Street Reserve homebase, including more than 200 children in the AusKick program. EAJFC president Naomi McKay said a redevelopment of the club’s facilities is necessary to facilitate “inclusion, dignity, and ensuring every member of our community has equal access to participate.” A statement from the junior football club read that “on 11 June 2025, a person with a physical disability was unable to access the toilets and had to use…