Residents lose child care fight

paul.weston@news.com.au in the rural residential zone.

In a letter to residents on Friday, area councillor Peter Young said “it grieves me to report to you that the contentious child care centre” had been approved.

As residents packed the council gallery at a meeting in November last year, Cr Young gained enough support from fellow councillors to win the first-round battle to stop the development. “It was a great victory, but subsequently the applicant appealed to the court,” Cr Young wrote.

“Council engaged a senior and experienced law firm to defend the refusal, but the advice received, after their careful analysis, was that our likelihood of successfully defending the refusal was negligible.”

Council was faced with the choice of defending the appeal at a potential cost of $500,000 or “seek to settle the matter and determine a way forward to reducing the impacts”.

The applicant had agreed to contribute $70,000 towards the design of traffic lights at the Smith St-Hammond Dr intersection, Cr Young said. “My objective is that the signals will be installed in the 2018-19 financial year, which we anticipate will be not too long after the childcare centre might be operational.”

Cr Young this week hopes to meet with long-term resident Ron Poll and consultants to reduce the impact on his property, which he and his wife bought 25 years ago.

“I’ve sent a letter of our concerns to Peter Young. It’s mostly about the traffic and the noise,” Mr Poll said.

“The play area is beside our house, right near our daughter’s window. That’s not reasonable.

“There will be noise coming from car doors slamming and people talking at 6.30 in the morning when it opens. Noone else wants this. The residents are not happy about the decision.”