By Charlene Gatt
MARIBYRNONG City Council is one of only two councils in the West to ban the media from planning forums and residents briefings.
The council sent an email to media outlets last week outlining that planning forums and residents’ briefings were off-limits unless invited by the council.
Residents have also been told in recent invitations to planning meetings not to invite members of the media.
Wyndham City Council also has the same policy in place, but Brimbank, Melton and Hobsons Bay councils say they are happy for the media to attend planning forums and residents briefings.
CEO Kerry Thompson said planning forums and residents briefings had always been invitation only meetings between applicants and objectors and had never been open to the media.
“It is not appropriate for these discussions to be reported on, as they may not accurately reflect the final planning application that is presented to council,” Ms Thompson said.
“The media has the opportunity to report on planning applications when they are formally considered by the council, and on council’s debate and decision regarding that application.
“We had another media outlet contact us beforehand asking if they could attend, and we informed them they were not able to. If media have attended planning forums in the past, it was without our knowledge at the time.”
Star attended both meetings and was acknowledged as a member of the media at the start of the meeting.
Both Alan Ross from the Maribyrnong Residents Association and Enzo De Fazio from the Residents Against Inappropriate Development in Maribyrnong group said the media should be allowed to attend planning meetings.
