By Kerri-Anne Mesner
MUCH-NEEDED services in Brimbank will continue to struggle after Brimbank City Council knocked back two planning applications on Tuesday night, with one receiving 53 objections.
The council rejected an application for a child-care and migrant education centre proposed for Taylors Road in St Albans, as well as an application for a nursing home in Mara Court in Taylors Lakes.
Councillor Miles Dymott said it was tragic the council had to reject on one night two applications that would have provided much-needed services to local residents.
Cr Anthony Abate said he would encourage the person who submitted the application for the child-care and migrant education centre to find another site in the municipality and submit an application that complied with the Brimbank Planning Scheme.
Taylors Ward councillor Natalie Suleyman said Brimbank needed more nursing homes, but unfortunately the application the council rejected was not in an appropriate location.
“We are not against nursing homes,” she said. “It was just an absolute overdevelopment of the site.”
The planning permit application for Mara Courtwould have seen a 120-bed nursing home built but native vegetation removed and parking reduced.
When the original application was advertised, it attracted 53 individual objections.
Cr Suleyman said the council needed to be more pro-active towards applications earlier in the process so the applications did not get to the council chambers only to be knocked back.
She said she hoped the council would receive another application for the site that complemented the area and its character. The report tabled at Tuesday night’s council meeting showed council officers had raised a number of issues with the applications.
Cr Suleyman said the road network was not designed for a bulk building and people trying to access a nursing home would need to make several U-turns.
Cr Marilyn Zukalski said some residents in Mara Court had put their houses on the market because they feared the application might be approved.
She said she feared with the number of beds proposed, there might be a repeat of the gastro outbreak that occurred at a nursing home in nearby suburb in the past year. Ambulances would struggle to reach the patients.
“I would hate to see this go to VCAT (Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal) because I think that it would impact greatly if they get it through VCAT and get it built there,” Cr Zukalski said.
Cr Margaret Giudice said the site was originally open space, but the Keilor City Council rezoned it residential.
She said this was the second application for development of the site to come before the council.
