LAST week’s Hobsons Bay Council meeting descended into chaos over soccer being banned at Seaholme’s Fell Reserve and amid allegations of a cover-up over councillor legal fees.
About 300 members of Altona City Soccer Club (ACSC) packed the council chamber to protest against the soccer ban on the 10,000-square-metre reserve.
The council received a letter requesting the ban be reversed, but replied that the decision could not be rescinded because it had been acted upon.
As reported by the Weekly, Seaholme residents on the Noordenne Estate had celebrated after the council last month unanimously voted to ban soccer training at Fell Reserve.
But the club accused the council of “selling its soul and dirty politics”.
More than 200 people had signed a petition in favour of the ban, while more than 500 signed a petition against it.
At last week’s meeting, Williamstown’s Angela Altair and Williamstown North’s Peter Hemphill said they had voted for the ban without being aware of all the facts or that a consultative process was under way.
Altona Meadows ward councillor Luba Grigorovitch, who was absent from the May 8 soccer ban vote, said she was “mortified” and “disgusted with our council”.
Even Noordenne Estate Action Group member Sheila Freeman, who lobbied for the soccer ban, said everyone had been treated unfairly.
“I just feel there’s hidden agendas there,” she said.
“I feel due process has not been completed.”
However, she said that if the club needed more room, perhaps it was time for it to move.
“Maybe they’ve outgrown their ground. Look, there’s plenty of grounds around.”
ACSC facilities manager Robert Palmaricciotti said he was confident of resolving issues with mayor and ward councillor Tony Briffa and Noordenne Estate residents, who say their amenity is being ruined by soccer training.
“To see 300 of our members and players there at the council meeting was inspirational and has brought the club closer together and with a united front,” Palmaricciotti said. “If we’d wanted to we could have had close to the whole 2000 members there.”
But the meeting erupted over the deferral of an agenda item to disclose councillors’ legal fees incurred from November 2004 to April this year.
Spotswood ward councillor Bill Tehan moved to defer the item, claiming the report lacked information.
It is understood the missing information relates to the 2007 Supreme Court Winky Pop decision which found “Cr Hemphill was affected by an apparent bias” in a planning matter.
Cr Altair exclaimed that the council was being gagged. “This is an appalling gagging of a very important item … shame, shame, shame. It’s shameful, shameful.”
Cr Tehan shouted across the chamber: “Cr Hemphill’s fees aren’t in there. You’re a disgrace, councillor, an absolute disgrace.”
Cr Briffa, who this week fronted Cr Hemphill at a Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal serious misconduct hearing, adjourned the meeting.
Cr Grigorovitch yelled out there had been “$56,000 spent to date by our mayor walking out the door”.
When the meeting resumed, Cr Briffa urged “everybody to respect the local law and just act with a bit of professionalism and decency”.
Cr Hemphill said the deferral made “a mockery of the transparency issues that you raise”.
