Cheeseman: Duffields boundary commitment will be honoured

SOUTH Barwon MP Darren Cheeseman says the Victorian Government will honour his 2018 election promise of halting development at Duffields Road in Torquay.

“Absolutely the government will meet our commitment that Duffields Road will be the boundary. I’ve been on the record for a long time saying that, as has the Premier,” he said.

The MPs comments appear to settle the dispute over potential development in the Spring Creek Valley and seemingly pre-empts the release of his government’s final Statement of Planning Policy (SPP) for the Surf Coast and the Bellarine.

Each were meant to be released late last year but are now expected “to be in place by mid-2022,” according to a Victorian Government spokesperson.

“In the context of COVID it has taken longer than what we had originally hoped,” Mr Cheeseman said.

Under the State Government’s current Draft Surf Coast State Planning Policy, two options are being considered for the contested Spring Creek area.

The first allows for a roughly one-kilometre-wide parcel of land, west of Duffields Road, to be “designated for low density ecologically sustainable development”.

The second option rezones the area to rural land, enacting a “green break” border between Torquay, Jan Juc and Bellbrae.

Premier Daniel Andrews is already on the record as saying the Torquay boundary will be at Duffields Road.

“Not one foot further,” he said in 2019.

“We made commitments and those commitments will be honoured in full.”

But a concluding decision on the fate of the Valley still rests with the Planning Minister Richard Wynne, and his release of the final SPP.

A Victorian Government spokesperson confirmed the Minister has received the final report from the Distinctive Areas and Landscapes Standing Advisory Committee, setup in 2019 to review the more than 3000 written submissions received during public consultation on the draft Surf Coast SPP.

The spokesperson saying that the draft Bellarine Peninsula SPP was still with the department “and will communicate the next steps in finalising it shortly.”

The Greater Torquay Alliance (GTA) community group has been leading the campaign against development in the Spring Valley, its President Andrew Cherubin saying it “would be delighted” if the Duffields Road boundary is maintained.

“But we don’t really want to make any full comment until we see what is in the SPP” and if it “also delivered controls on the town’s expansion, maintained the town’s character and set acceptable building heights and how the valley and remainder of Torquay is to be treated”.

Some landowners and developers have threatened legal action if Spring Creek development is banned, suggestions of a payout dismissed by the Premier in 2019.

“Previous governments made decisions and I’ll leave it to them to defend some of the cosy relationships they had with cashed-up developers,” Mr Andrews said.

The area was rezoned for urban development in 2014 by then planning Minister Matthew Guy, however it was his Labor predecessor Justin Madden who in 2010 expanded Torquay’s town boundary to incorporate the 1km section of the valley.

The Surf Coast Shire subsequently amended the local planning scheme to allow for development in 2017, but it’s since tacked and in early 2021 voted in favour of outlawing development.