A PARKING permit scheme for Chelsea traders has come under fire from the very shop owners it was designed to help. Kingston Council has decided to issue parking permits for Chelsea business owners during a 12-month trial due to begin next month (‘Parking permits up for grabs’, The News 6/8/14). Some traders had complained they were unable to park their cars near their stores behind the Chelsea shopping centre near the Woolworths store without fearing being booked by roving council parking inspectors. Small business owners especially are often unable to leave their premises to move their vehicle from a limited…
Author: Neil Walker
LABOR’S new Frankston candidate Paul Edbrooke says Frankston “is a great place to live and work” but “deserves better representation” than sitting MP Geoff Shaw. Mr Edbrooke told The Times he would push for Frankston to be given a better deal on health, transport and education if elected at November’s state election. The 35-year-old firefighter’s selection as the ALP’s Frankston candidate has been mired in controversy after Mr Edbrooke was given special dispensation to be considered as a candidate despite not being a member of the party. Long-time Labor Party members put their hand up for preselection but missed out…
PUBLIC transport woes in Frankston and across the peninsula were top of the agenda at a Victoria First forum hosted by Labor MP Kelvin Thomson last weekend. The federal member for Wills in Melbourne’s inner north launched Victoria First late last year as a way to argue Victoria’s “rapid population growth” should be halted to “safeguard and enhance Victoria’s way of life”. The not-for-profit non-government organisation wants immigration to Australia capped “to the levels of the 1980s and 1990s”, a net gain of 70,000 instead of about 200,000 annually. Mr Thomson said Victoria First believed in a multi-racial society and…
FRANKSTON’S Chisholm TAFE Institute is on a financial sound footing compared to other further vocational education and training providers in Victoria. A report by the Victorian Auditor-General released last week revealed the state’s TAFE sector suffered a $16.2 million net deficit in 2013 and many institutes are in financial strife in the wake of state government funding cuts. Chisholm defied the state-wide trend by reporting a net surplus, before operating costs, of $30.6 million. In 2012 the Frankston TAFE reported a net surplus of $3.5 million before costs. TAFEs collectively generated revenue of $1.08 billion, $89.4 million less than in…
CHELSEA traders will be able to park all day near their stores without worrying about being fined by roving parking inspectors under a new permit scheme to be trialled by Kingston Council. Councillors rubber stamped a 12-month trial of parking permits for shop owners at the latest council meeting. “Traders regularly get booked because they can’t get out to change where their car is [in 2-3 hour parking zones],” Cr Tamsin Bearsley said. “Many traders are happy to see this introduced but several are against a cost being involved.” The annual fee for a trader parking permit will be $268,…