Moyne Shire councillors voted 4-3 in favour of granting a permit for the facility in Mill Street, with councillors Jill Parker, Ralph Leutton, Colin Ryan and Kelvin Goodall in favour and councillors Mick Wolfe, Jim Doukas and Anthony Keane against.

Before the vote, the council heard from a nearby resident who opposed the station being built at the Mill Street site, as well as a representative for a neighbouring horse training facility who was in favour of the project.

The council also heard a final submission from the CFA, which proposed some minor adjustments to the conditions of the permit, including one to allow for volunteer training exercises to occur on a monthly basis after business hours.

The council received six objections to the fire station being built at the former site of Koroit Health Services, but Cr Parker said the objections were questionable.

“Not that long ago instead of having a fire station there they had an aged care facility and hospital,” Cr Parker said in regard to traffic.

“Carparking seems adequate, … Murray Goulburn provides plenty of noise pollution anyway, and if we didn’t have any fire stations in a ‘fire prone area’ we wouldn’t have one anywhere in this district.”

Cr Leutton said the CFA had been looking for a site “for quite some time and lots of locations have been looked at”. He added that opposing the Mill Street site might mean “Koroit won’t get a fire station”.

But Cr Wolfe said he was sure there were “more suitable sites in the area”.

“Conditions have been amended to suit the project when the project doesn’t suit that area,” Cr Wolfe said, pointing to the “quiet residential” vibe of the area and the narrowness of Mill Street itself.

“I admire the CFA and what they do, but in this case they’ve picked the wrong location.”

Cr Goodall, the last councillor to raise his hand to get the station vote across the line, conceded he had hoped for some conditions regarding an upgrade of the road be included in the motion, but believed that would happen in due course anyway.

“That area is in a state of flux – it’s not going to be a little suburban street forever,” he said, referring to Murray Goulburn’s plans to build another factory nearby.

“I’d rather have it there than not have it at all.”