Pokies clubbed

By Tania Martin
THE Shire of Yarra Ranges last week agreed to fight the introduction of 10 additional gaming machines to a Returned Services League club in Yarra Junction.
This comes after the Upper Yarra RSL in Settlement Road let its permit for the redevelopment of the club, including the extra machines, lapse.
Shire director of planning, building and health James LamourReid said the club applied for a planning permit to redevelop the property in 2001, including increasing the number of electronic gaming machines from 20 to 30.
The council agreed to issue the planning permit, but with the condition gaming machine numbers would not be increased.
The club then appealed to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) and was granted the permit to introduce an extra 10 gaming machines.
A permit to redevelop was issued in July last year, but Upper Yarra RSL president John Ockwell said there had been some extenuating circumstance as to why the work on the had failed to commence.
He said the delay was due to the VCAT appeal for the gaming application, the approval of amended plans regarding effluent disposal and the death of the committee member coordinating the project.
Mr Ockwell asked the council last Tuesday night to approve an application to VCAT to extend the club’s permit.
Mr LamourReid said the RSL’s solicitors wrote to the council indicating that based on a recent VCAT decision they could seek an extension of time despite the permit being out of date.
VCAT last year ruled a permit could be extended by the council or convening authority if an applicant requested an extension within three months of the permit’s expiry date.
However, Ryrie Ward councillor Di Moore said this would be a good time to fight the introduction of the extra gaming machines and vetoed the application.
“The shire would be much better off if it had no gaming machines,” she said.
Cr Moore said the council had consistently fought against the introduction of extra gaming machines, but the choice was taken away when VCAT approved the RSL’s permit in 2002.
Chandler Ward councillor Alan Fincher said he had seen first the detrimental impact gaming machines had on the local community.
Victorian Commission of Gaming Regulation statistics show $2.8 million had been put into the shire’s gaming machines from the beginning of this year until the end of August.
The shire currently has 417 gaming machines.
Mr AmourReid said the council would have another opportunity to put its case to VCAT on the adverse social impacts an extra 10 gaming machines would have on the shire.
Mr Ockwell declined to comment further on the RSL’s application for extra gaming machines.