Call for council to stand firm

By Tania Martin
A MONBULK resident is calling for the council to defend its decision to oppose a parking application by the Monbulk Bowling Club due to go before the Victorian Administrative and Civil Tribunal at the end of the month.
Meanwhile, the Monbulk Bowling Club has urged the council to either provide more parking for the town’s recreational facilities or support the application.
However, Shire of Yarra Ranges community relations manager James Martin said the council would stand by its original decision to refuse the application.
In November last year the bowling club was notified that its application had been refused because it went against the council’s planning scheme guidelines.
The matter didn’t go before the council, but the decision was made by council officers during the caretaker period.
At the time council received six objections to the parking lot but several more residents have since joined the campaign to fight against the parking lot. The parking lot will be adjacent to the bowling club and backs onto several residential properties located in Mt Pleasant Road.
Nearby resident Katalin Pal said a parking lot would disturb the quiet street and would create an increase in traffic along Mt Pleasant Road.
However, Monbulk Bowling Club secretary Terry McHutchison said all the land surrounding the bowling club was council owned and that he failed to understand why $250,000 had just been spent on the soccer club if no extra parking was to be added.
Mr McHutchison said the bowling club owns both its rooms and the adjacent roadway which currently acts as a common carriage way for all the sporting facilities at the recreational ground including soccer, netball and tennis.
He said parking has proved to be a problem when there is a large soccer match and netball tournament running at the same time.
Mr McHutchison said most other towns in the shire have sporting grounds with the parking infrastructure to support the recreational activities.
Mr McHutchison said the bowling club put in its application for the parking lot more than 12 months ago and it was only now that the council had come back saying it was refused.
He said the bowling club was prepared to build proper fences around the car park.
Mr McHutinson said the bowling club would fight like hell at the VCAT hearing for the addition of a parking lot.