WHEN the City of Casey voted to put up $5000 for a noise attenuation study on land earmarked for recreational motorbike riding I thought it was the wrong thing to do.
However, had I been a councillor I would probably have voted to do just as the majority of Casey councillors did.
The problem is that the money is being directed to a commercial enterprise. As things are.
But can and will things remain as they ‘are’?
Recreational motorbike riding enthusiast Wayne Maslen’s dream is to create an off road-riding centre for young people. He has a long-term option on a lease of land at the corner of Kooweerup Road and Deep Creek just opposite the sewerage farm.
This is probably the most suitable spot available in the two municipalities for the proposed centre.
He fell out with the Shire of Cardinia councillors because he said they refused to give him a permit for the project.
Councillors say they were unable to issue a permit because Mr Maslen refused to provide them with more information.
He says no way, because the information they wanted would get into the hands of his opposition, whoever or whatever that opposition was.
This to me is deja vu because the same thing happened when he applied to the City of Casey for a permit to run a similar facility in that municipality.
As things are, Maslen is or will be the proprietor of the land and the facility at Pakenham. He holds a trump in that regard, but has failed to play his trump and missed the deal. Because of his frustration with Cardinia council the matter ended up at the Victorian and Civil Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), but this seems a long way around an issue that could have been handled in other ways.
Going to the VCAT without a noise attenuation report by a well-recognised consultant would be wasting everyone’s time because it would be thrown out in a flash.
So why doesn’t he have one?
If he accepts this money from Casey and the VCAT says yes to his proposal then he owes much to the City of Casey.
This should eventually be repaid either in cash or in kind.
One way to repay Casey and Cardinia residents is to open his land up for community use.
This means we need a public meeting to gauge how best this can be done.
We have also to consider the few neighbours in the area.
If you upset a small village of 100 people you have upset 100 per cent of the residents.
If you upset a small district of three people you still upset 100 per cent of the residents.
Neither should be an acceptable situation.
Because of this, VCAT will want to be absolutely sure that noise from the facility is within the set standard.
My experience is that even then, there will be some noise, but at an acceptable level.
The noise needs to be no worse than that coming from the main road and this will be a challenge to those building the motor sports facility.
Casey councillors have said loud and clear that the Koo-weerup Road land provides the last chance for the two councils to provide a recreational motorbike centre.
Cardinia council has shown that it is opposed to the facility so we will now have councils ‘going at it’ when the issue comes before the tribunal.
I still wish the three interests would sit down like adults and try to work through this situation in the interest of those using recreational motor bikes and those who have to put up with them being used illegally around their homes.
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