More recently a plan for a major bypass road, by building a bridge across Corio Bay from Point Lillias to Point Henry, has been touted by a major motoring organization, the RACV. PPCC Inc. has written to parliamentarians stating its reasons why such a road should not bypass Geelong on the east, and will watch this issue very closely. 

In June, we were represented by Stephen Morey, Olwen Bawden and myself at a launch by the Minister for Environment and Conservation, Hon. Sherryl Garbutt MLA, of substantial initiatives on, and funding for, improving management of storm water discharges into Port Phillip. After the launch we spoke to Mrs Garbutt on a number of Port Phillip issues, and we were listened to attentively. 

In Bayside Municipality our campaign against the intrusion of a "Tea House" structure onto a long Hampton clifftop with a well treed backdrop has been answered by a statement from the Natural Resources and Environment Department that Coastal Management Act consent is unlikely to be given to such a proposal. The statement refers to the "isolation of the site" and "that visual impact of the proposed building is significant and incompatible with the surrounding coastal landscape". Our press statements and a presentation at a Council Meeting also made those points. PPCC Inc. has written to Mrs Garbutt asking that she not give her consent. 

With the same unfortunate approach of intruding further commercial development, Bayside Council has resolved to transform the historic Brighton Sea Baths Building (now on the AHC’s National Estate database) into a 190-seat commercial restaurant. The plan includes constructing a large car park for almost 200 metres along the edge of the Bay’s spray zone to the south of the building, rather than primarily on the sheltered inland side already cut off from the sea by the building. Removal of some 5000 m³ of a vegetated coastal bank from the foreshore to as deep as 3 m is proposed. PPCC Inc. and Brighton Foreshore Protection Association Inc. have appealed to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal (VCAT) against these damaging proposals. 

Kananook Creek Association Inc. and Frankston Beach Association Inc. have, in conjunction with PPCC Inc, been monitoring the saga of the marina proposal for Oliver’s Hill. The current Planning Minister has said that a marina there could not have boat storage facilities. PPCC Inc. has trenchantly castigated what it regards as an unsound survey promoted by Frankston Council purporting to reveal public attitudes to a marina sited there. 

PPCC Inc. has succeeded, with the help of our Senior Vice-President, Len Warfe, in amicably convincing Mornington Peninsula Shire Council to undertake traffic engineering measures at St Johns Wood Road, Blairgowrie, in a way that satisfactorily minimized substantial harm that could have otherwise occurred to a large coastal sand dune there. Len is also pursuing our concerns about an allegedly illegally-commenced walking track near Anthony’s Nose, Dromana, and an allegedly illegally-constructed car park at Dromana, with both being appealed against at VCAT. 

The immediate past President, Alan Clark, and I had discussions this month with the Shadow Minister for Environment and Conservation, Victor Perton MLA, who had been the Guest Speaker at our April General Meeting. We reminded him of our submission to the Environment Conservation Council on Marine Protected Areas and aquaculture, and explained the priorities it was based on. 

The Committee has produced two issues of PPCC Inc.’s newsletter, Port Phillip, which detail matters above.