Claims food van plan concerns gone unheard

A RESIDENT’S concerns regarding a proposed business development in his immediate area have gone unlodged with the City of Ballarat’s planning department despite living a stone’s throw away from the site.

Reading about the proposed food truck venture at 303 Peel Street North featured in the Friday 19 January edition of The Ballarat Times, Merv Romeo took issue with the applicant’s hopes to eventually use the space to sell alcohol.

“Given the number of venues that already cater for alcohol, there’s no need,” he said.

“There’s the Black Hill Hotel, Eastern Hotel, Eastern Railway Hotel, the Queen’s Head. There’s plenty of places in walking distance.

“We’ve had trouble before with people drinking alcohol on that same property when it was rented out as a private house.

“The person I spoke to at council said there wasn’t anything in the planning application about serving alcohol and they’re not aware of it as far as they’re concerned.”

Living just on the other side of the Yarrowee River from the site, Mr Romeo discovered he’d missed the deadline to submit a complaint for the application, with his property not included among the residences listed for notification.

“Our main concern was the potential sale of alcohol which I’m not sure is a valid concern now but I went to see the council to give my two cents’ worth and they said I’d missed the deadline,” he said.

“Our property was one property over the limit of where they have to send the proposals so we knew nothing about it.

“We’re one house out and in the immediate area. We weren’t given a chance to submit any objection because we weren’t considered to be in the immediate area.

“I’d like to see more houses in that area that could be affected be notified.”

Mr Romeo said the property next to his was due to receive notice of the application despite being a vacant lot, while his next-door neighbours said they too never received any notice.

City of Ballarat director of development and growth Natalie Robertson said the municipality’s method in notifying nearby residents of planning applications is in line with legislation.

“The City of Ballarat follows requirements outlined in Section 52 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 when assessing planning applications,” she said.

“In this instance the assessing officer directly contacted adjoining and other nearby owners to notify them of the planning application, which exceeds requirements in the Act.

“There were also two signs placed on the building advising of the planning application, one on Peel Street North and one on Rowe Street.

“The application for 303 Peel Street North is currently being assessed by the City of Ballarat’s statutory planning unit, with public submissions still able to be submitted up to the date that a decision is made.

“There has not been an application made for the sale of liquor at the site.”