Locals say boat plan won’t wash
A STOUSH involving the location of a Surf Coast boat washing facility will go before the state planning tribunal.
Lorne Aquatic and Angling Club members are concerned that boat users face a serious safety threat under new boat-wash plans that would force them onto a Great Ocean Road blind corner.
The club is petitioning Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority (GORCPA) chair Libby Mears to reconsider the plans.
The club claims that under the planned Point Grey redevelopment, vehicles, boats and trailers travelling between the boat ramp and the angling club boat-wash would be forced to use the Great Ocean Road to access the facilities.
The matter will be heard as part of a wider Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal hearing on Monday, but members have also launched a petition calling for change.
Club commodore Keith Miller said anglers brought their boats out of the water behind the fishing co-operative and drove straight to the boat-washing area beside the clubhouse. He said the new plans would force members to travel down the road to wash boats.
“It’s hardly safe forcing them into the road, with traffic flying into a blind corner in front of the hotel,” he said.
“We presently have space for three or four boats to park while waiting to be washed. Under the new plans, there’d be no parking space at all for waiting boats at all. It’s just too silly for words.
“We have a very good safety record, with no memory of any accidents at all with the existing arrangement.”
A GORCPA spokeswoman said that as the issue was going to VCAT next week, “we will not be commenting in detail until an outcome has been handed down”.
“We have considered and assessed all traffic management alternatives submitted by the Lorne Aquatic and Angling Club and have concluded that the plans as submitted, and permitted by Surf Coast Shire council, provide the safest outcome for all users of the site,” she said.
Residents have been campaigning to save the existing co-op facility from demolition, raising more than $21,000.