Supermarket slammed Mt Evelyn residents say ‘no-way to Safeway’.

By Tania Martin
MT EVELYN residents sent a resounding message to Woolworths last week that the company was not needed or wanted in the town.
This coincided with a town meeting which was held at the town’s community hall in Wray Crescent last Wednesday night in order to give residents a last chance to voice their opposition to the proposed Safeway.
The meeting also gave Safeway parent company Woolworths the opportunity to answer any questions.
The conflict goes back to 2003 when land on the corner of Snowball Avenue and Station Street was rezoned from residential to business.
However, the residents lodged no objections at the time because the original proposal was for a doctor’s surgery and specialty shops.
After several years had passed and the doctor’s surgery had failed to eventuate, rumours of a proposed supermarket led residents to dig in and prepare for a fight.
They have been fighting ever since against the proposal. They thought the battle had been won when the Shire of Yarra Ranges rejected the application in May last year.
But since Woolworths has taken over the project from original developer, Arch Carswell.
The council and local residents are now preparing for a new stage next week when the application goes before the Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal.
Before the final chapter of the saga, the residents decided to go one last round with Woolworths at a town meeting.
The residents called for the multi-national to back down and stop invading their town.
“What part of no don’t you understand – we don’t want you here,” one resident said.
Mt Evelyn Protection Progress Association (MEEPA) vice-president Claire Worsnop said the residents want the town to stay the way it is, which does not include the construction of another supermarket,
“It is our town, our voice, our future, our choice and we choose to stay the way we are – we choose to reject this development,” she said.
Mayor Tim Heenan said Woolworths had not asked the people of Mt Evelyn if they wanted another supermarket and had presumed it would be welcomed.
“But they were wrong – they made a presumption that was very wrong,” he said.
Woolworths spokesman Ralph Kemmber said the invitation for retail development had been offered when the council agreed to rezone the land to business in 2003.
Mr Kemmber said the residents had opened the town to such development by not objecting to the rezoning.
But Walling Ward councillor Len Cox defended the council’s decision, as the original application was for a doctor’s surgery.
Cr Cox said it was disappointing that the development had not gone ahead and instead turned into a battle over a supermarket.
Cr Heenan said Mt Evelyn residents were known for refusing to back down and would fight until the end.
The VCAT hearing will begin on 25 March and is scheduled for a week-long hearing.