MORE than 100 residents attended a rally on Sunday to protest against a proposed multi-storey development on the former Newport timber yard site – and against Victoria’s planning system stripping control from councils.
More than 200 objections were lodged against a $9.6million four-storey apartment block proposed by Domain Hill Property Group for 6 Paine Street.
Hobsons Bay Council rejected the proposal in December.
Protect Newport spokesman Darren Williams told the crowd that residents were now raising a “fighting fund” to do battle at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
“At the last election, the Baillieu government was elected to power on the promise that planning decisions should be made by local councils,” he said. “We need to send a message to Mr Baillieu, Planning Minister Matthew Guy and our western region Liberal MPs in Bernie Finn and Andrew Elsbury.
“We need to send them a clear message that our local council and all their experts have made their decision and we expect the state government to uphold and support that decision to refuse to grant a permit through its planning appeals tribunal VCAT.
“I’m not sure that the Liberal government would even be in power if they had said before the last election that they wanted to turn
Melbourne into Manhattan, with high-rise buildings right across the city and suburbs.”
Williamstown Labor MP Wade Noonan and Western Metropolitan Greens MP Colleen Hartland spoke at the rally.
A six-day VCAT hearing is scheduled to start next month.
