THE days and nights of drink drivers who fail alcohol breath tests keeping driving licences in Kingston and across the state are over. From 30 April, any driver recording a Breath Alcohol Content reading of more than 0.05 will lose their licence for at least three months. There will be no leniency for first offenders. Previously, drivers providing a “mid-range” reading between 0.05 and 0.069 could be fined but keep licences in some circumstances. Alcohol interlock devices will also be fitted to the vehicles of all drink drivers for six months after they are back on the roads. Labor Victorian…
Author: Neil Walker
A VICTORIAN budget dubbed “a budget for the ‘burbs” has seen the Labor state government splash taxpayers’ cash across Frankston and ultra-marginal sandbelt seats along the Frankston line ahead of November’s state election. Frankston Labor MP Paul Edbrooke hailed the budget, announced last Tuesday (1 May) by Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas, as “getting things done for Frankston”. Millions of dollars for classroom upgrades at several Frankston area schools have been allocated in the 2018-19 state budget. Students at Monterey Secondary College, Mahogany Rise Primary School, Mount Erin Secondary College, Ballam Park Primary School, Karingal Primary School and Kingsley Park Primary…
THE Chelsea and Edithvale shopping strips may be rejuvenated if Kingston Council plans to revitalise the commercial areas come to fruition. Councillors at the latest public council meeting on 23 April voted for council officers to look at ways over summer that car parking and the look of the strips can be improved. A formal structure plan for the Chelsea Major Activity Centre will be conducted. South Ward councillor Georgina Oxley said “quite a few vacant shops” are noticeable in the Chelsea shopping strip on Nepean Highway. Council officers, in a report tabled at the council meeting, counted eight empty…
RATEPAYERS across Frankston will cop an increase in charges for recycling in the wake of China banning almost all of recycling material previously sold to China from overseas. Any items with a plastics or paper component of just 0.5 per cent can no longer be sent to China as part of that country’s push to stop “foreign rubbish” imports. Frankston Council expects the recycling charge will rise by 75 cents a week on a standard 240-litre recycling bin, a $38 increase annually for each household in the municipality. “Instead of being paid for product, councils are now being forced to…
A POTENTIAL loss of “honour” between Frankston and Japan has been avoided after council’s mayor decided to pay for a trip to Frankston sister city Susono out of his own pocket. Some councillors at the 3 April public council meeting expressed concerns about the cost to ratepayers of the mayor’s proposed trip to the Australian Fair in Susono in September. A delegation from the Frankston Susono Friendship Association heads to Japan every second year and Japanese visitors come to Frankston in the alternate years the delegation stays at home. The cost of the Japan trip for mayoral airfares and accommodation…