Utopia claims denied

Former owners of Utopia Pet Lodge at Longwarry North, now used as Baw Baw Shire’s municipal pound, have strongly rejected statements by council that they approached council to buy the property.

“We never approached the council,” Glenn Cunningham told The Gazette last week.

Mr Cunningham and his wife Suzanne operated the pet lodge that temporarily housed pet cats and dogs for more than 12 years.

It was only in its response last October to The Gazette’s Freedom of Information requests that council declared it had been approached by the former owners about the possibility of council buying it.

The Gazette had unsuccessfully asked for two years how the 2.02 hectare Utopia property became an option to three other sites, all council owned, for which draft plans and cost estimates had been prepared and released for public consultation.

In its FoI response council stated Utopia’s owners had asked as early as January-February 2016 if council would be interested in buying the property.

Council admitted no written proposal was ever made to it.

The initial contact between council and Utopia resulted from council approaching commercial pet housing operations in the district and asking if they would be able to temporarily house some impounded animals while a new pound was built.

Mr Cunningham said the approach was made in person by a shire officer who was told Utopia couldn’t do that and also because the business and property was about to be put up for sale.

“A week later the shire officer visited again and asked if the shire could look further.”

Mr Cunningham said in early conversations the shire spoke about fencing off the rear section of the L-shaped property for impounded livestock and creating a new entrance to that area from Labertouche Rd.

There was also talk about council having a caretaker live on site to look after the pet boarding facilities and the pound, he said.

Mr and Mrs Cunningham ran the pet lodge, a seven day a week business, with the help of a “semi-casual staff member”.

A house at the property in which the Cunningham family lived has not been occupied since council took possession.

The pet lodge that council initially claimed would “provide a welcome additional revenue stream” to offset the cost of running a pound was closed in September 2017, 12 months after council took over, due to ongoing losses.

According to statements at a council meeting last July about $90,000 would now need to be spent to make the house habitable.

A decision on whether to demolish the house was deferred at that meeting until “a master plan is developed for future improvement of the site”.