Zaida Glibanovic
ALMOST every topic seemed to be up for debate at the Latrobe Town Council meeting last Monday, November 6, at the Gippsland Performing Arts Centre.
All the councilors were present in the GPAC meeting room which has a gallery that can accommodate 60 people.
It was an exhausting session as the meeting lasted five hours.
Mayor Kellie O’Callaghan joked that perhaps the council should have organized a catering service amid the lengthy discussions.
Members of Traralgon Golf Course gathered en masse to speak and listen to council’s decision on the Traralgon West development plan after concerns were raised that council was considering rezoning the club’s land from golf, but the topic was ultimately postponed to the December meeting.
Mayoral election
The November meeting was Cr O’Callaghan’s last as mayor since Monday, November 13.
Council elected Darren Howe as the new mayor of the Town of Latrobe, and Tracie Lund was named the new deputy.
Howe will look forward to leading the council into the new year.
More to come next week The Latrobe Valley Express.
The future of the old Methodist Church up to VicTrack
The council voted unanimously in favor of VicTrack and seeking a new lease on the land on which the former Methodist church sits.
“After a long process, we are here this evening to put in place the first stages of saving and restoring the old Methodist church,” Cr Darren Howe said.
Earlier this year, the council allocated $86,000 for the future of the church after collecting 21 submissions with suggestions on potential purposes for the building.
Community groups have come together to save the historic building and return it to community use, with some suggesting it should house a museum.
Council has thanked the community for their assistance in the consultation and will now wait for VicTrack to adhere to the lease.
Letter to State Government to review assessments of capital value and improvement of outlying properties
Councilor Melissa Ferguson’s notice of motion on improving property values on the outskirts of Latrobe City was adopted.
Following concerns from ratepayers about ill-informed valuations of their homes, Council will write to the Victorian Valuer General and the responsible minister at the Department of Transport and Planning.
The letter will request a review of the valuation process and criteria used to determine capital enhanced value (CIV) for properties on the outskirts of Latrobe Valley.
The review will take into account the unique characteristics, economic conditions and market dynamics of these areas to ensure that the evaluation process is conducted in a fair manner.
New policies
Cr Melissa Ferguson declared a conflict of interest and was not present during the vote to adopt the draft youth policy.
The policy outlines the Council’s commitment to young people aged 12 to 25 – providing them with advice on programs, projects, participation and engagement across the region.
There was plenty of discussion about gender-specific toilets and changing rooms at Council facilities thanks to speaker Tayla Ling, who expressed her personal concerns on the issue.
Cr Sharon Gibson’s alternative motion was to postpone the vote until some clarity was found on public and transgender toilets.
Cr Clancey said: “We are talking about a youth policy and a youth policy has nothing to do with changing rooms.”
“I think the conversation you’re having here, we already had it when we had our public restroom policy,” he said.
Cr Clancey said the city’s young leaders were ready to step up and should not be held back for a month’s deferral as Cr Gibson would propose.
Despite lengthy debate, the council voted unanimously to postpone the vote until next month’s council meeting.
The Council’s policy debate on preventing sexual harassment has again highlighted an issue for Cr Gibson in relation to sexual harassment, transgender people and the use of public facilities.
While the debate deepened, with Councilors Gibson and Harriman pushing for an alternative to postpone the vote, the other councilors, with the exception of Councilor Ferguson who abstained, agreed to adopt the prevention policy sexual harassment.
The policy is available online on the Council’s website.
The Council also adopted the Child Safety Policy 2023, replacing all other versions despite a request to postpone the policy.
Draft Guidelines for Community Gardens
Council approved community garden guidelines to help advise on future community garden projects.
With several community gardens organized across the municipality, Cr Tracie Lund said community gardens are becoming increasingly popular and with community buy-in they can really improve health and wellbeing.
The draft guidelines will be available on the Council’s website.
Flood mapping update
Council will carry out further community consultation before re-exposing Amendment C131 (flood mapping update).
The peer review report made several recommendations that resulted in changes to the overlay mapping, including:
Remove revetment from land where storm water flooding is identified as the cause of flooding, not river flooding;
Remove overlays from lands where no flood study or an incomplete flood study was used to justify mapping;
Update the Latrobe River mapping to include the available climate change scenario, and;
Carry out mapping of other flood studies that did not include a climate change scenario as they constitute the “best available information”.
The Council will consider this issue at a future meeting.
Applications of the Blackheads program
The Council will seek funding from the Australian Government’s 2024/2025 Black Spot Program.
By examining crash data, Council officers identified the most dangerous local roads in the valley.
Franklin Street and McNairn Street in Traralgon, Saviges Road in Moe and Vincent Road in Morwell have been identified as four locations requiring funding to improve safety.
Given the death on McNairn Street and the multiple serious injuries that have occurred on these roads since 2017, Council will approve the funding requests.
The Black Spot Program is a road safety program administered by the Australian Government aimed at repairing dangerous roads by addressing road locations where motor vehicle accidents are more common.
Diversity and inclusion plans
The Cultural Diversity Advisory Committee will be dissolved in favor of a Community Engagement Group for Cultural Diversity.
Relevant stakeholders and committee members will be informed and the Board will work to develop the new Diversity Engagement Group.
The Council also decided to extend the terms of the Reconciliation Action Plan, initially developed from October 2020 to 2022, and which will now be active until October 2026.
Additionally, Council tabled and noted Gippsland Pride’s broad initiative, the Rainbow Brick Road Report.
Tourism and major events consulting
Three major events will go ahead in Gippsland after council approved recommendations from the Tourism and Major Events Advisory Committee.
Council approved funding for the Australian Club Championship in-line hockey tournament for a further three years, allocating $10,000 per year.
The 2024 Pro Tour men’s and women’s tennis double-header tournament received $20,000 in funding.
Finally, continuing Latrobe City’s links with the National Basketball League, the council will have the Deakin Melbourne Boomers women’s team playing in the area for another two years.
A financial allocation of $25,000 was reserved for Boomers games.
Quarterly budget report
Council received and took note of the budget report for the quarter ending September 30.
The Comprehensive Income Statement forecasts a surplus for the entire financial year of $15.7 million, $7 million more than the original budget.
The Council maintains a strong liquidity position with $184.8 million in current assets compared to $27.5 million in current liabilities (a liquidity ratio of 6.7:1).
