By Ruza Zivkusic
The move was approved at last week’s Brimbank City Council meeting.
Not-for-profit groups will be charged $6.20 per hour, and commercial groups are expected to pay $17.50 per hour.
The council will charge senior citizens $6.20 per five-hour session also.
Councillor Miles Dymott has described the move as “bureaucracy gone mad”.
He said ratepayers’ money had already been spent on building the library and the meeting rooms.
“For the council to go and abuse the payers for every single service on top of rates, I don’t think is the correct way to go,” Cr Dymott said.
He said the decision would mean community groups will hold fewer meetings.
The agenda for the council meeting stated that there was no formal procedure or operating policy for the meeting rooms.
“This is simply not the case and is certainly not the experience of the room’s users,” Cr Dymott said.
“Users reported that they had to contact a council officer to book the room. So quite clearly there is a formal booking procedure that users needed to follow in order to secure one of those rooms for meetings,” he added.
Harvester Ward councillor Sam David said the policy was introduced so the meeting rooms will “be in line with other centres”.
The fees would ensure the protection of council-owned assets, Cr David said.
“It’s not even a drop in the ocean. It’s not much,” Cr David said of the fees.
Darlene Reilly, treasurer of the not-for-profit Sunshine Residents and Ratepayers Association, said the council should encourage residents to meet and discuss ways of improving the community.
“It’s not a moral thing to do when you’re trying to promote people to get involved and do things,” Ms Reilly said.
“I can understand if you are (working) for a commercial business and you’ve got to hold the seminar and charge people to come into the building and make a profit,” she said.
Sunshine Commercial Association president Orlando Vicduelles said the association could not afford to pay the fees.
“We don’t have the budget for that because we’re just using the money that was left from last year,” Mr Vicduelles said.
The 15 association members who attend meetings – who have been using the meeting rooms for the last four years – will have to find an alternative meeting place, he said.
