MINUTES OF THE 49TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF BEAUMARIS CONSERVATION SOCIETY INC
HELD AT ST. MICHAEL’S CHURCH HALL, BEAUMARIS, AT 7.30 P.M. ON 9TH OCTOBER 2001 |
| 1 APOLOGIES
SUE RAVERTY, INGRID ASHFORD, ROD & LESLEY WINNING, RALPH & PAT SALISBURY, JIM & AUDREY HARRIS, ANNE GIBSON 2. CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES OF THE 48TH AGM MOVED: KEITH HOLMES SECONDED: ADRIAN CERBASI 3. PRESIDENT’S REPORT Refer to attachment to these minutes for a full copy of Ted’s report. 4. TREASURER’S REPORT Expenditure slightly less than previous year, probably due to the fact that there were no Council elections in the past year. There is at present a healthy surplus. Resolved that the Treasurer’s Report be accepted: MOVED: G.GOODE SECONDED: T.PEARCE 5. ELECTION OF OFFICE BEARERS The following Office Bearers were elected for the year to 2001: PRESIDENT: Ted Pearce ZONE LEADERS: Ted undertook to be President in a caretaker mode for the next 4 months while a new President is sought. Questions were then invited from the floor. Cr Ken Beadle, our local Council representative, took the opportunity to speak to the meeting. He thanked the Society for its work in the community and for its support, and particularly praised the efforts of Ted Pearce. He stressed that he is still working for our aims in the planning/development area; he supports us when he can: this is not always straightforward with ‘borderline cases’, as there is a state decree in favour of medium-density development. He appreciates the information passed on by Patricia re. upcoming developments we consider inappropriate – this is very helpful. With regard to Rescode/C2 he foresees some problems, particularly with height and density. We will probably not get our request for lower density development in the local area. Overall it will be an improvement on the Good Design Guide. He thinks that councillors will have to accept a compromise position following the State Government panel’s report on Rescode – this is the best way to at least achieve some of our aims. Ken is seeking to bolster the street trees policy on mature trees. Ideas are local paper publicity for those who vandalise trees or cut down trees that by right should be protected. He encouraged members to be vigilant, to ‘dob in’ those who have no respect for the rules. He keeps working on conservation issues, but is not always supported by fellow councillors – he encourages us therefore to let other councillors know what we think about issues as they come up, so as to give support to his views on Council. Ken finished by again praising the work of BCS Inc. and encouraged us to keep it up. 6. REPORT ON PORT PHILLIP CONSERVATION COUNCIL INC. Geoff Goode spoke to the meeting about PPCC Inc, a federation of 14 conservation organizations; 1. Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary. The Environment Conservation Council recommended a marine park for Ricketts Point, but in the end this was omitted by the Government from the overall plan. The Government has failed to offer a credible argument as to why this happened. The total plan for marine parks in Victoria was eventually thrown out as the Government did not have the numbers in Parliament to put it through. PPCC Inc. is still working for a marine park for Ricketts Point. 2. The deepening of channels in Port Phillip Bay. The Victorian Channels Authority wants to deepen the channels to make way for bigger ships. However, they can only predict 30-40 years use of Port Phillip by these ships even if the plan is carried through. The Minister, Candy Broad, has stated that she will only approve the deepening of channels if there are no detrimental environmental effects. At a recent meeting of the Victorian Channels Authority it was stated that on average the water level will be 20 mm higher at high tide (apart from effects due to global warming). The question is: what is the maximum? This is an ongoing debate, which PPCC Inc. is working on, as the environmental effects could be quite significant. Peter Clark from Treescape (and a BCS Inc. member), a qualified arborist, spoke to the meeting on tree care and pruning. Apart from the subject of his talk, Peter was very supportive of BCS Inc. and its aims, said that he believed we had a great reputation in the area, and encouraged us in continuing our work. Meeting closed 10:00 p.m. |
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