Star

Footscray, Yarraville, Braybrook Star

Million-dollar

By Charlene Gatt

5th August 2008 11:05:41 AM

Continued on Page 2.

MARIBYRNONG City Council is expected to withdraw from the Whitten Oval redevelopment Committee of Management in a special council meeting tonight.

The council will also consider retracting its $1 million contribution to the $25 million project.

Mayor Michelle MacDonald confirmed the council held a snap meeting early last week to discuss its role in the redevelopment after the Western Bulldogs sought a State Government intervention over a planning application.

The application – which proposed a Victoria University Education Centre in the redeveloped John Gent Stand – was under community consultation when Planning Minister Justin Madden overruled the council.

The council decided to hold a special council meeting to officially decide its stance.

“If the Bulldogs and State Government are saying that council’s an impediment to the development, we’re saying, ‘It’s okay, we’ll withdraw and hand it to the State Government’,” Cr MacDonald said.

Western Bulldogs president David Smorgon said the Bulldogs had only been informed about the meeting from media inquiries.

“That’s the council’s decision,” he said.

“As far as we’re concerned, there’s a commitment by the council to contribute to the funding of the Whitten Oval.

“I’d also like to add that every other financial backer we have in the redevelopment has put in some, or all, of their money and the council is the only one at this stage not to have put in one dollar.”

Mr Smorgon said as part of the Whitten Oval’s project control group, the council had just as much to do with the planning application as the Bulldogs.

Fear over Dogs’ Hilton plan, Page 3.

From Page 1.

The control group has representatives from the council, the Bulldogs, the AFL and the state and federal governments.

“The project control group had the control and made all the decisions about the redevelopment – as to what was going to happen, when the money was going to be released, what stages could be done – and the council has sat around that table and has had the same say as every other representative,” Mr Smorgon said.

“The Bulldogs haven’t blundered. The Bulldogs have been part of the project control group, and that is the body that has ultimate responsibility for the management of this project – not the Western Bulldogs, as has been indicated by the council.”

In further developments, the application at the centre of the dispute may be pulled if the Western Bulldogs don’t remove 48 poker machines from Whitten Oval.

Victoria University’s deputy vice-chancellor for capital and management services, Jon Hickman, said the university’s proposed $8 million education centre could not be in the same venue as the machines.

“Our arrangements with the Bulldogs require that the gaming machines be removed prior to any occupancy payment being made,” he said.

Mr Smorgon said the machines would be removed in due course.

“The Western Bulldogs are committed to removing the gaming machines from Whitten Oval. It’s part of the agreement, it’s been there for three of four years, and we are committed to do that.”