A COMMERCIAL cafe on the lower ground floor of the building partially leased by the Frankston Yacht Club is paying a minimal “peppercorn” rent to Frankston Council. Boomtown Barbecue last month moved a pop-up food and drinks business into the Frankston waterfront building built last year at ratepayers’ expense. Peppercorn rent is very low or minimal rent and can be as low as $1 annually to lease premises. The foreshore building cost more than $11 million amid grand council plans to lease the upper floor to a restaurant business and the lower floor to a cafe operator. Neither proposal eventuated…
Author: Neil Walker
AN anomaly in the way drug driver statistics are recorded mistakenly showed there were no drivers under the influence of drugs caught during a Christmas and New Year period police operation. Operation Roadwise, conducted from 15 December-7 January, targeted motorists drink driving, speeding and driving while unlicensed (“Some drivers not so wise”, The Times 15/1/18). Somerville Highway Patrol acting senior sergeant David Collins said last week a total of 59 drivers found to be under the influence of illicit drugs while driving listed in the Mornington Peninsula statistics included nabbed drug drivers in the Frankston area. “It’s disappointing that we…
FRUSTRATED neighbours of a polystyrene making factory in Seaford have vented concerns about noise and pollution that have been repeatedly investigated by authorities over the past four years. Residents near the Wuzhou Foam plant in Apsley Place have been quietly trying to have something done about fumes and noise pollution from the factory for years but finally voiced discontent with its operations at the latest public council meeting last month. Seaford Community Committee chairman Noel Tudball spoke on behalf of fuming residents at the December council meeting and said they are not NIMBYs. “The residents had no complaints about the previous…
A GIFT declared by a Frankston councillor has caused a stink at council after council management questioned the appropriateness of the gift. Cr Steve Toms declared he received a bottle of Issey Miyake aftershave, valued at $100, in July last year from a Young St business by completing a Gift Declaration form. Councillors and staff must disclose the receipt of gifts related to their role as council representatives under council’s Staff Gifts and Hospitality Policy. Council’s chief executive officer or a council director sign off on all declared gifts accepted, declined or donated to charity. Councillors must declare all gifts…
A PAY deal for Frankston Council staff has been agreed at the fourth time of asking. Council employees voted in late December to accept a new enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) after council management increased a pay offer of 1.4 per cent to a 2 per cent annual rise in salary. The vote to accept the latest deal came after two previous pay and conditions proposals were voted down by a majority of Australian Workers’ Union members at Frankston Council (“Pay offer rejected again by workers”, The Times 21/8/17). A third vote had to be recast due to a legal technicality.…