POLITICAL debate is set to intensify in Kingston in this state election year and Kingston councillors have kicked the year off by indulging in some political posturing of their own. Councillors voted in November last year to lift restrictions on the number of times politicians could appear in the City of Kingston’s Kingston Your City newsletter, and putting pollies back in the picture was back on the agenda at Monday evening’s first ordinary council meeting of the year. The official lifting of a limit of “one photo and/or mention each per edition” of a state or federal politician in KYC…
Author: Neil Walker
SAVAGE funding cuts to a not-for-profit community legal centre could leave Kingston vulnerable to overdevelopment, according to community groups that have used its services. Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s federal government decided to abruptly withdraw $10 million in funding to the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) in December last year and its Victorian office based in Carlton regularly provides legal advice to Kingston opponents of residential and commercial projects. The EDO is an independent community legal service, specialising in public interest environmental law. They give legal help to individuals, community groups and conservation organisations seeking to protect the environment and advocate for…
KINGSTON’S green wedge is in danger of being “carved up” for residential development, with an elite Melbourne private school among those set to profit, according to environmental activists. Defenders of the South East Green Wedge secretary Barry Ross slammed Kingston Council’s decision to move to rezone a strip of land in Braeside to “an appropriate form of residential zone”. The land, which includes even-numbered properties between 732 and 928 Springvale Rd, 327 Governor Rd (currently a service station), the JV Marine boat dealership, and a bus depot, was due to be excluded from the green wedge as part of Kingston’s…
SOARING temperatures have some Aspendale Gardens residents worrying that snakes will invade their homes and gardens this summer. The open Smyth’s Drain near Bowen Rd in the Royal Palms housing estate is a known haven for snakes and many residents have often seen snakes in the vicinity. Residents took their concerns to then Kingston mayor John Ronke in 2012 and are frustrated that council has not acted to install snake mesh along the fenceline of nearby homes to stop snakes gaining access to properties. Jackie Court resident Paul Munro said Cr Ronke promised to look at installing snake-proof fencing but…
NEW residential planning zones are set to go back on Kingston council’s agenda next month after the state government failed to endorse council’s inital Neighbour Residential Zone draft plan. Following community consultation, council officers submitted a request in early October to the Department of Transport Planning and Local Infrastructure to exhibit a planning scheme amendment to show proposed new residential zones. The government department advised council in late October that it could not exhibit the plan until state government authority was given and has subsequently issued a further practice and advisory note giving councils further options ahead of a July…