http://frankston.yourguide.com.au/news/ ... 42353.aspx
Saints' Seaford base approved
http://frankston.yourguide.com.au/news/ ... 42369.aspx
Call to spend on clubs, not Saints
Despite approval having been given, it seems there is a bit of angst amongst some of the local Councillors and residents. Some of the issues appear to be:
• the Council allegedly exploiting loopholes in its own planning scheme (although I think the objectors have misread the scheme provisions)
• Belvedere Park is not the right place (within the City of Frankston) for the St Kilda development
• increased traffic
• parking problems
• out-of-hours activities
• timing of public notification of the application and the consequent public information session and objector meeting around the Christmas period
• $50,000 to be spent on maintenance of oval would be better spent upgrading infrastructure at local sports grounds
• not convinced about the claimed $42.5 million economic benefit to the municipality of St KFC moving in
• the additional $800,000 to be spent on upgrading the oval could have been better spent on local sports clubs
• the annual rental of $1/year is inadequate
• the secrecy around the deal causes concern for some of the Councillors.
But, apart from a possible appeal, it should be all plain sailing from here for the club (except for the minor matter of being responsible for
$1.43 million + any other costs).
Mind you at the AGM if ther4e had been Frankston reps present there would undoubtedly have been some misgivings. A couple of comments from the stage:
In response to a question about the future of the social club facility at Linton Street - "it's part of the grand plan to move everything to Seaford eventually". This was put in the context of (I though he said) a 40 year lease of the land from Kingston Council (although I think it is closer to 30 years).
In explaining the benefits of Seaford vis-a-vis Moorabbin, it seems the club is relying on Frankston Council maintaining the new oval at Seaford, thereby saving $400,000 of maintenance expenditure. Now we've had discussion on here in the past about the cost of maintenance of an oval, and if anyone thinks it's $400k they've got rocks in their head. But the fact that the club announces that Frankston ratepayers are saving the club $400k annually by maintaining the oval for them might just make the burghers nervous.