The VCAT order

Updated post with summary of decision

• Walls higher due mainly to removal of ground “batter”
• Not much change to the actual levels of walls (i.e. their true height)
• No detrimental impact to private or public realm
• Adjoining property owner withdraws objection

Thanks to the Alpine council’s planning department I have obtained a copy of the recent VCAT ruling   in relation to the (unsuccessful) appeal against the wall heights of the new Woolworths supermarket in Bright. It’s a complicated read but it appears to me VCAT simply found  that Woolworths had “no case to answer”.  

Here is my summary of the decision:

Give it a bone

Shut up!

Haven’t we all had enough of ‘Mad Dog’ Malkin?

Resident Save Bright nutter, Nick Malkin, has been at it again, getting himself in a lather over the (now completed) Woolworths supermarket development in Bright.

Malkin’s quotes from the Bright Observer about VCAT throwing out the Alpine council’s ridiculous appeal over the wall heights are a real hoot:

Are burn offs really worth it?

This DSE burn off near Bright last Thursday looked much the same on Saturday, but are they really necessary? (Click on image to enlarge)

This might enrage some people but I firmly believe that:

1. No lives have ever been saved by a DSE prescribed burn off.
2. No property has ever been saved by one either.
3. But plenty of damage (to health, property & industry) has been caused by them.

Mt Buffalo saved?

The proposed "Mildura Jewel" casino. It ain't exactly pretty (click on image to enlarge).

Mildura to get ‘our’ casino

The anti gondola-on-Mt Buffalo protesters may have won the war before it has even started. The news that Mildura is proposing Victoria’s second casino, a $300-$400 million conference & convention centre on the banks of the Murray River, might mean there is no possibility of any viable redevelopment of Mt Buffalo and its historic chalet in the forseeable future. Oh, you didn’t realise that a casino was mooted for our mountain? Shhh, it’s a secret.

Anyway, they’re welcome to it.

AFL round 1 ‘expert’ tips

It’s about time I did this, seeing as though the 2nd game is about to start. I have no idea who is going to win this year’s premiership, although I confidently rule out: Melbourne, Freo, North Melbourne, Richmond, Carlton, Essendon, Sydney & West Coast.

So that leaves: St Kilda, Geelong, Footscray, Hawthorn, Collingwood, Brisbane, Adelaide & Port Adelaide, which makes up my final 8 prediction (in no particular order). Here are the tips for round 1 (oh, we’ve got 4 tipsters this year, being Rox, Baldrick, Greg Naylor & yours truly):

Quick update

I’m still too busy on other matters to put up new posts at the moment. So this is a quick update/preview of posts that I’ve got in the pipeline:

AFL Round 1 ‘expert’ footy tips: It’s just Baldrick & me again this year (not too late for others to join though). As round 1 starts tonight I’ll just give you the tips for the Carlton-Richmond game, which are: Baldrick – Carlton, Ray – Richmond. Full post to follow.

Gondola propaganda: As expected the Alpine council and its task force looking into the Mt Buffalo gondola idea has published some pretty wild claims about the level of support they’ve received from the so-called community consultation. Their report is crap and sheer propaganda. Whether you support the gondola concept or not you don’t want to see this sort of bullshit process that makes a mockery of the whole thing. More (much more) to come on this.

Malkin madness: Save Bright nutter Nick Malkin has gone way over the top with his latest comments regarding the VCAT decision to throw out the Alpine council’s appeal against the wall heights of the new Woolies supermarket in Bright. I think most people are pretty fed up with his constant moaning and ridiculous accusations. More to come (from me, hopefully not from him).

‘Expert’ footy tipping 2010

More 'experts' wanted.

The AFL footy season kicks off Thursday night and once again A.O. will be bringing you its award-winning ’expert’ footy tips (syndicated Australia-wide & internationally) featuring Ray and “resident nutter” Baldrick.

If anyone else would like to join the ‘expert’ panel you’re more than welcome. There’s no money involved and the only prize for the winner is worldwide acclaim and fame.

Just send me an email on alpineopinion@gmail.com with your tips for round 1 no later than this Wednesday night.

The soccer result

This is not sour grapes because I really couldn’t care less about Sydney beating Melbourne in the A-League Grand Final last night, but deciding the winner of a whole season of football by a penalty shoot out is just nuts. To me this is soccer’s biggest flaw (well, that and the fact the supporters are the most volatile and riotous in the world) and a major reason that it will never replace AFL as this country’s major code.

Nino the nong

VCAT finds wall height errors to have “no significant impact on the amenity of the area”.

"It's not our fault"

The Alpine council is clearly in denial that it was in any way responsible for the rear walls of the now completed Woolworths supermarket in Bright being built about half a metre higher than the original endorsed plans. This is what our well-paid mayor Nino Mautone had to say about the futile appeal the council (unsuccessfully) engaged in at great expense to the ratepayers:

Alpine Mayor Nino Mautone said the (VCAT) decision “completely disregards” the wishes of council. “I really feel a bit betrayed because I think it makes a mockery out of our planning process … there are processes to be followed and in this case they weren’t followed.” ~ Border Mail 20/3/10

Comment:

Breaking news

Council loses pointless VCAT appeal

According to Prime TV News tonight (Channel 7) & Win (Channel 9):

The Alpine council has lost its costly appeal against the wall heights of the soon-to-be-opened Woolworths supermarket in Bright.

That’s good news and not unexpected. How pathetic is it though that there is no corresponding announcement of this important decision on the council’s website? What’s wrong, are they too embarrassed at the massive loss of face (and ratepayers’ money)? Come on, someone there needs to get off their arse and make a public statement – NOW!

I’m sorry to break my 7-day no blogs pledge, but this news compelled me to do it. Anyway I’ll write more about it when I know more.

 Meanwhile, for the attention of Lee Rosser , Nick Malkin and the handful of Save Bright hillbillies & neanderthals ….

You lose (again!)

No blogs for one week

7-Day open thread

I’ve got a lot to of jobs to do around the place at the moment so I’ve made myself a promise not to write any new posts for a whole 7 days. I know it will be hard for many of you to get through without my daily contributions so I’ll leave this post as an open thread where you can say whatever you want on any topic (I’m not restricting myself from the comments). Here are some starters:

The population debate: The leader of the Greens, Bob Brown, has said that he “definitively” believes Australia cannot sustain Kevin Rudd’s projected population of 35 million by 2050. What do you think? I think he’s absolutely wrong.

The Barry Hall debate: How long before the reinvented Barry Hall blows it and pops someone? I’ll give him until about round 9. And that’ll be the end of the Bulldogs’ year.

The Michael Clarke debate (if you can call it that): I reckon the Australian cricket team’s vice captain has come out of this Lara Bingle thing looking like a real self-obsessed ponce. I really don’t care if his cricketing career suffers.

Strange search terms #2

I’ve done this before but it’s interesting (and amusing) to look at some of the search engine terms people use to find this blog (WordPress provides this information on my stats page). This is the pick-of-the-bunch from the last 7 days:

how we can stop climate change ~ Um, leave the planet?

And here are some more:

Should New Zealand become an Aussie State?

UPDATE 21 June 2010: Following New Zealand’s great performance last night against Italy in the World Cup I’ve bumped this older post to the top for further discussion. It’s really a no-brainer now, isn’t it? I mean, let’s pass emergency legislation NOW -today! – and claim the New Zealand soccer team as “the Australian A-side”.

It's only 2,000 kms from Australia's east coast, which is much closer than Perth.

Of course they should - it’s a ‘no-brainer’

I’ve been saying for quite a few years that Australia should simply annex New Zealand, and now it looks like the Kiwis are starting to agree that they’d be better off as part of the Australian Commonwealth (or Republic, as the case may be).

According to this report  more than 40% of New Zealanders think it’s time they considered becoming Australia’s seventh state:

The research, conducted by UMR, asked residents on both sides of the Tasman for their views on a possible union of the countries, 110 years after New Zealand chose not to join the Australian Commonwealth.

Of the New Zealanders asked, 41 per cent said the prospect of New Zealand becoming Australia’s seventh state was “an idea worth debating”.

Comment:

The NAB Cup Final

It doesn’t ultimately mean a lot but this pre-season ‘Grand Final’ tonight promises to be a great game. As much as I’d like to see St Kilda win it, I just think that Footscray will want it more. After all, they’ve had even less success than St Kilda has had over the past 50 years or so. But I bet the Saints keep Barry Hall pretty quiet – they usually do.

Did you know ….

…. that digital TV reception can be affected by sound waves put out by domestic equipment? I didn’t … until a few minutes ago. My neighbour started up his (rather loud) lawn mower and while he was mowing up & down within about 10 metres of our antenna, our digital TV reception went haywire, cutting in & out with “no signal” messages. But as soon as he turned it off, it was fine. This is not good enough and I get the impression we have been duped into accepting a sub-standard transmission signal that can be interfered with by the simplest of things. Fix it please, Mr Rudd. Gotta go now, he’s just started the mower again and guess what?