By Kerri-Anne Mesner
FORMER Brimbank mayor Natalie Suleyman has asked for a ministerial inquiry into Brimbank City councillors and their motives when voting.
After Tuesday night’s council meeting Councillor Suleyman asked chief executive officer Nick Foa if the council could write to request ministerial intervention and/or investigation into a number of items on the council’s agenda.
Her request was denied but the three-time mayor has vowed to write the letters herself.
The letter requests came after Crs Suleyman, Anthony Abate and Ken Capar criticised Cr Sam David’s efforts to move alternative motions to two planning items, one of which had been to an independent panel.
One of the alternative motions Cr David had in mind dealt with a proposed radiology clinic for Hampshire Crescent.
Council officers had recommended that the application be refused on the grounds that it was contrary to state and local planning policy, was outside Sunshine Principal Activity Centre boundaries and would be detrimental to the amenity of surrounding land.
After heated debate, the councillors agreed to defer the item so that officers could prepare another report that would include conditions for approval.
Cr David then tried to move an alternative motion for a planning scheme amendment and planning permit application for an existing business in St Albans. It would have rejected the applications.
The request was for two parcels of land under the one application to be rezoned from Residential 1 to Business 2, with two planning permit applications lodged at the same time.
Cr Suleyman said that two months ago the council endorsed an officer’s recommendation to refer the St Albans application to the Planning Minister to appoint an independent panel to review the applications and two submissions received.
“The independent panel recommended the council should support this,” she said.
Cr Abate said he was puzzled about what was going on at the ordinary council meeting, considering that at the briefing the previous night councillors raised no questions.
The report said that while the sites were on the edge of the St Albans Major Activity Centre, the centre would benefit from improvements to degraded areas and development of under-utilised sites and help resolve an identified demand for offices and service activities, he said.
Cr Abate said the panel considered the planning scheme amendment request was therefore in accordance with the relevant state and local planning policies to promote development in and near activity centres.
The report said the proposed building and works would significantly improve the appearance of the site, acknowledging that it had not been possible for the owner to make necessary improvements because of the property’s status.
Cr Costas Socratous said he could not understand why the council should trust the applicant to follow through with the proposals after the council sent numerous letters to the applicant to fix up the property and those requests went unheeded.
Cr Troy Atanasovski said he was concerned about the application because the applicant was asking to borrow VicRail land for car parking.
The council deferred the matter.
