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COUNCIL MEETING TONIGHT TUESDAY NOV 13th ** REQUEST FOR SUPREME COURT * APPEAL MOTION TO BE RAISED ONCE AGAIN *

NEW DEADLINE FOR THE STATE GOVERNMENT PETITION

It has been decided that the deadline for the petition below, which is to be presented to Matthew Guy and read in State Parliament, will now be extended to the end of this month – the 30th of November. The petition calls on the Baillieu government to make changes to the new planning laws in order to limit the ability to allow inappropriate fast food outlets in the Dandenong Ranges in the future.

We need everyone and anyone spreading the word and obtaining as many signatures on this petition as humanly possible. Rather than a few hundred signatures, which we have collected over the past few days alone, I think we can easily obtain a few thousand signatures or more.

Please print out the attached document, get your friends, families and neighbours to sign it. If anyone knows of any shops, galleries, communities houses or organisations who wish to help out, please pass it on. Let’s aim to get at least 5000 signatures by the end of this month – between all of us this is more than achievable. A special presentation of the petition to Matthew Guy will be made in early December with a view to having it read in the final sitting of Parliament for this year.

Spread the word!

**PLEASE NOTE: This is an updated version of the previous petition which was shared over the weekend, please use this version and this version only. If you have previously downloaded a version, please check the wording and numbering on the page is exactly the same as this one as any other versions are no longer valid.

Download new petition here

MEDIA RELEASE 11 Nov. 2012 – No McDonalds in the Dandenong Ranges. A reoccupation armed with Devonshire Tea!

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Following Friday’s eviction of protesters from the proposed Tecoma McDonald’s site, residents have responded immediately with a reoccupation. Taking advantage of an open side entrance, over 60 local residents met again at the community garden and playground that had been built on the site.

“There is no problem that cannot be better solved with a good cup of tea” was the old dictum followed by residents, and so a grand Devonshire Tea party was the means of determining the next step in resisting a totally inappropriate 24/7 fast food outlet in the Dandenong Ranges.

“Bolstered by the wave of sympathetic media coverage in the last 2 days, hundreds of new supporters have joined our social media campaign to influence McDonald’s not to build an outlet in one of Melbourne’s most beautiful panoramic settings” said community campaigner Karl Williams.

Mr. Williams continued, “While we did have a number of grounds to appeal to the Supreme Court the VCAT decision that ruled in favour of McDonald’s, neither the council nor residents were prepared to put up the half million dollars required to take on McDonald’s. But we’ll side-step these corporate bully-boy tactics and instead turn this into a public relations disaster for McDonald’s.”

A highlight of the tea party was the fastening of the People’s Padlock on the security gates to the site, symbolic of the retaking by the community of the land. Local resident Emily Hehir summed it up as, “As local residents overwhelming opposed to McDonald’s, we feel it’s our right to have a say in what impacts our home. Our democratically-elected local council has been overridden by an unelected VCAT tribunal which has given no weight to the volume of objections in its decision.”

When police arrived 3 hours into the tea party, occupants were asked to leave and duly complied. But a range of other actions are planned, and this week community members are meeting with Victorian Planning Minister Matthew Guy to discuss community concerns. Mr. Guy has also expressed his concern with the legal process and how VCAT ignores the weight of community opinion in its planning judgments.

High Tea in the Garden – Sunday 11th November