Residents blast VCAT decision

DEVON Meadows residents are disgusted by the treatment they received during a recent Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal hearing.
Property owners on Finsbury Road said they were left angry and disappointed after a VCAT judge upheld City of Casey Council’s decision to make residents contribute to the sealing of their road.
Resident Tracey Marino said the 13 or so locals who attended the hearing believed they didn’t have a hope of winning their appeal case, claiming the hearing was unfair and one sided.
“It was a complete waste of money going in there,” she said.
“The judge had the attitude of ‘bad luck’.
“He didn’t give our arguments the time of day.
“He didn’t even bring his law book. One of our people had to lend him one.
“Our treatment in there was disgraceful. We were all horrified.”
Ms Marino said she opposed having to pay almost $8000 to seal the road when council should use the money it received from its “skyrocketing rates” to finish a job that was started years ago.
“We pay huge rates here and get nothing for it,” she said.
“The whole area is neglected.
“We have put our house up for sale partly because of this. There are plenty of other councils that will pay for roads.”
Fellow resident Victor Downs said he was also left feeling helpless after the VCAT hearing, claiming residents were victimised the whole way through.
“We had 20 minutes to plead our case while council had hours for theirs,” he said.
Mr Downs said he was fed up with council’s continued ignorance of the needs of the area, questioning where ratepayers money was going.
“Why can council spend so much money on Casey Fields, but they can’t even fix a road?
“They should be using all those millions on all the roads in Casey.
“They want you to pay through the teeth for rates, but don’t want to do anything.
“And what annoys me is that half the councillors don’t even know where Finsbury Road is,” he said.
Colin Grose agreed the hearing was a waste of time.
“We never even got a hearing. I just gave up in the end,” he said.
Casey manager engineering and environmental services David Richardson said council had begun calling for tenders and would proceed with the construction of the road immediately.
“VCAT upheld council’s special charge scheme and rejected residents’ objections,” Mr Richardson said.
“The sealing of this road will ultimately be of benefit to residents and VCAT’s decision confirmed this.”