Kingston Council meeting abandoned after four members go AWOL during Bay Trail spat
They’ve signed off on the route and a tree planting plan but Kingston councillors are still squabbling about the Bay Trail with a fiery debate descending into chaos and shouted insults from the public gallery.
Inner South
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Work on the long-awaited final leg of Melbourne’s Bay Trail may have begun but the bitter battle between Kingston councillors on the hugely controversial issue hasn’t died.
Tensions over the project triggered chaotic scenes at Kingston Council this week with four councillors going AWOL, forcing a meeting to be abandoned.
The last-minute special meeting was arranged in a bid to rescind a January 29 decision calling for an Independent Broad Based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC) investigation into the project to investigate “any improper or illegal actions”.
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After a fiery debate peppered with points of order and shouted insults from the public gallery the call for a probe was quashed but Mayor Georgina Oxley was forced to call for a five minute adjournment to quell rowing councillors and an angry gallery.
That break became an hour when the four councillors who lost the vote — Cr Geoff Gledhill, Cr Ron Brownlees, Cr Tamsin Bearsley and Cr George Hu — failed to return to the chamber. Cr Oxley asked officers to search for the four in the building but after an hour there was still no sign of the missing councillors and the meeting was postponed.
Cr Oxley, who cast the deciding vote on the rescission motion, said the call for an IBAC probe was “a stunt.”
She said she was confident the correct process has been followed in the council’s Bay Trail decisions.
But Cr Ron Brownlees said there had been many complaints from residents and businesses owners saying they weren’t properly consulted about the trail alignment or the decision to plant trees of both sides of Beach Rd to create a boulevard of honour that celebrated community contributions.
He said asking IBAC to examine the process was not about stopping the trail completion.
“Indeed, the work has already commenced,” he said.
“It’s about transparency, accountability and respect … acknowledgment of community opinions and views.”
Cr Eden said any individual with concerns about the decision making process could ask IBAC to investigate.
The final 3.2km of path along Melbourne’s foreshore, from Mentone Life Saving Club to Mordialloc, has been ripping the community apart and been a bitter political issue for years in Kingston.
Decisions on how and where to build the final section of the Bay Trail, a shared walking/cycling path from Port Melbourne to Seaford have been a long time coming but have split public opinion.
The council will revisit the issue on February 18.
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