THE state government and Moyne Shire are aware of a push by Killarney district residents to be reinstated as the committee of management for their local beach and recreation reserve.
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But the proposal is unlikely to prevent racehorse training being reintroduced at the beach in the short term.
Mayor Jim Doukas will put forward a motion at Tuesday night’s Moyne Shire meeting seeking to lift the ban on racehorse training at Killarney Beach.
Due to two councillors being absent and a third declaring a conflict of interest, Cr Doukas only needs one supporter out of the other three councillors present for the motion to be successful, as his casting vote would solve any vote split.
Spurred by the imminent vote, 35 residents from Killarney, Crossley, Tower Hill and Koroit have made a formal request to the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) asking “to take back the role of committee of management for the Killarney Recreation Reserve”.
According to a statement on behalf of the 35 residents, the aim is “to ensure the beaches are safe, to protect the environmental and cultural sites within the reserve, and to ensure that the original purpose of the reserve is upheld” as “the community has lost confidence in the Moyne Shire’s ability to provide safety and stability in its management of the reserve”.
A DELWP spokesperson said the department was “aware of the proposal”.
“Moyne Shire Council is currently committee of management for the reserve,” the spokesperson said.
“The proposal will also be considered in the broader landscape context as part of the engagement for the draft Belfast Coastal Reserve Coastal Management Plan, due to be released for public comment later this year."
It is understood Moyne Shire knows of the proposal but hasn’t been formally contacted about it.
For the community to be reinstated as committee of management, the state government would have to strip Moyne Shire of that position, or Moyne Shire would have to agree to the change after a period of consultation and discussion.
In response to a query from the state government in June this year, Moyne Shire voted unanimously to retain management of the area.
A group of local community members were the community of management for the recreation reserve and beach from 1961 before handing the role over to the state government in 2009 “due to the ever increasing complexity of administration and governance requirements”, which in turn gave control to Moyne Shire later that year.
