Police care call

By Paul Pickering
KNOX Police have appealed for understanding from Ferntree Gully residents in the wake of a Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) ruling to allow a fifth private boarding house to be established in a pocket of the foothills.
The 27 November ruling overturned Knox City Council’s refusal of a planning permit for private operator Basil De Jong to convert his Craig Avenue home into an 11-room boarding house.
And while the council and local residents last week vowed to take up the fight with the State Government, Knox Police Sergeant Bruce Kent made a plea for harmony in the neighbourhood.
He said Knox Police had only opposed the permit application on the grounds that it would result in undesirable concentration of boarding house facilities in the area which would stretch resources.
“Our concern was for the policing and medical needs of the tenants, as well as their psychological, employment, housing and transport needs,” he said.
“It was just that (the tenants) might not be getting the assistance they require and deserve.”
With some disturbing incidents between boarding house tenants and nearby residents being reported in the VCAT hearing (20-23 August), Sgt Kent was also keen to promote a better relationship between neighbours.
“The community needs to realise that the vast majority (of the tenants) have just hit a rough situation in their life – whether it’s psychological problems or a marriage break-up or something else,” he said.
“None of them really want to be there and in some circumstances they (the local residents) could find themselves in the same boat one day.”
But as Larry Pilkington – spokesman for the residents’ group – explained last week, Sgt Kent’s appeal may have missed their point.
“No one’s against these people or putting a roof over their heads but bring it under control,” Mr Pilkington said.
“We’ve always been against the clumping and that will continue to be the issue.”
Meanwhile, Mr De Jong was quick to claim the VCAT ruling as “a win for the underprivileged”.
Mr De Jong, who has often positioned Knox’s resistance to his facilities as an abandonment of the battling class, said the new boarding house would go some way towards addressing the dearth in low-cost housing in the region.
“It’s a crisis within the framework of the community,” he said last week.
“Everybody thinks rooming houses are a good idea, just not in their street.”
While Mr De Jong said he had no intention of establishing another boarding house in the area, he said he expected Knox to appeal the VCAT ruling.
Mr Pilkington, too, believes the matter is a long way from resolution.
“It’s far from over,” he said, signalling the residents’ intentions to form a lobby group early next year to demand action from the State Government.
“There’s a lot of very disgruntled people who are upset with the State Government – more than anything – for allowing it to happen,” he said.
The blame being directed at the State Government refers to a loophole in planning provisions that allows private boarding houses with less than 10 habitable rooms to be established without a planning permit – the manner in which three of Mr De Jong’s properties were developed.
This is the loophole that Dobson Ward councillor Karin Orpen has been lamenting to consecutive Victorian planning ministers for five years.
Last Thursday Cr Orpen and Knox mayor Jim Penna met with an adviser to Consumer Affairs Minister Tony Robinson at Parliament House, requesting that he raise the issue again with Planning Minister Justin Madden as part of an ongoing review of boarding house tenancy regulations.
While no assurances were given to the council, Monbulk MP and front-bencher James Merlino – who arranged the meeting – said “the Government is currently examining legislative amendments regarding rooming houses”.