PEOPLE will not have to spend a penny to use public toilets in Kingston after council adopted a 10-year Public Toilet Strategy aimed at using an annual allocation of $450,000 in ratepayers’ money to maintain and upgrade existing toilets throughout the municipality. Nearly 62 per cent of 436 respondents to a council survey on public toilets said they would “definitely not” pay to use a public toilet and 80 per cent said they used a public toilet either weekly or monthly. Toilet-goers who are not flush with cash feared council may start charging for loos access after the idea was…
Author: Neil Walker
A CLOSED meeting between councillors last month was not aimed at restricting councillors’ freedom of speech according to Frankston mayor Cr James Dooley. The mayor told The Times a mid-week meeting between councillors called at short notice last month mainly focused on discussions around how councillors can best communicate on online social media sites such as Facebook without bringing council into disrepute (‘Hidden agenda for secret council meeting’, The Times 20/6/16). The Special Meeting was not listed on council’s website and no agenda was released to the public before the meeting. Cr Dooley said the mayor and CEO are officially…
A COUNCILLOR conduct panel hearing held in April cost ratepayers $15,000 but one of the two councillors questioned by the panel feels it is money well spent. Cr Darrel Taylor, who had allegations of misconduct dismissed by the panel, says he wanted misbehaviour by councillors at Frankston Council to be made public after becoming frustrated by a lack of consequences for “unacceptable” conduct. “I’ve witnessed behaviour from some councillors that I personally regard to be totally unacceptable and no action has been taken,” Cr Taylor said. “Some councillors believe they can behave in an inappropriate manner and get away with…
A FACEBOOK group dedicated to hunting down feral and stray cats has denied it encourages the killing of domestic pets. The Cat Busters page on Facebook sprang to prominence on Friday (15 July) thanks to a flyer posted in letterboxes in the Frankston area urging cat owners to keep pets indoors since Cat Busters “is in your area”. “Domestic cats kill millions of native birds, reptiles and mammals every year in Australia,” the flyer stated. “Cat Busters catches cats. In suburban areas this includes the use of cage and leg-hold traps.” The flyer warned cats “may be shot on sight”…
CHILDREN often pretend to be superheroes they admire in comics or on screen but a darker side to pretending to be Spider-Man features in a new play called The Truth is Longer than a Lie to be staged at the Frankston Arts Centre this month. Young Matthew, a character in the play based on real-life accounts of child abuse, adopts the persona of Spider-Man to try to escape from the brutal reality of a life of abuse at the hands of his stepfather in “a welfare-dependent family with drugs problems”. Meanwhile, Amy faces the nightmare of sexual abuse by her…