‘No planning changes’, say Bass Coast farmers

IF YOU want to know how a set of proposed planning controls are going to impact farming, you’d ask a farmer, right?

And better yet, you’d get a few good operators together (focus group) and run it past them before going to the trouble of writing a set of clearly “ridiculous” laws into a local council’s draft Statement of Planning Policy.

Because, as we’ve seen from the steady stream of Bass Coast farmers, dragged away from their busy day on the farm to protect their interests in front of the Distinctive Areas and Landscape Standing

Advisory Committee recently, the whole process could have been short-circuited with a healthy dose of common sense from local farmers.

And just the man for the job, last Thursday, April 20, was fourth-generation Phillip Island farmer, Bill Cleeland, who appeared before the planning panel.

• You can’t tell a farmer not to cut down Cypress trees when they’ve reached the end of their usefulness.

• You’ve got to allow a farmer to build a fence that’s fit for purpose.

• Farm sheds are clustered together for good reason, regardless of Australian Height Datum.

• If your stock need a feed silo, they need a feed silo.

• And hay sheds are built to a certain height so you can stack bales four high.

It’s pretty simple stuff, and Mr Cleeland broke it down for the members of the panel in a short concise presentation.

The Bass Coast Branch of Victorian Farmers Federation, of which Mr Cleeland is president, was among the first to lodge a submission and together with the peak body, the VFF, helped bring about some immediate changes to those proposed in the Draft Statement of Planning Policy and Proposed Landscape Planning Controls.

These were acknowledged by Deputy Chair Alison McFarlane in a discussion with Mr Cleeland last week.

“The Minister has exhibited an exception for post and wire fences. They don’t need a permit,” said Ms McFarlane.

She said the Australian Height Datum (AHD) conditions, whereby a permit was required for a farm building sited in an area above 200 metres, had also been removed.

And Ms McFarlane said the requirement of applying for a permit to remove shelter belt trees, including “exotic trees row” did not apply to “Cypress trees that are dying”.

Which is good to know, but at this stage, the proposal is still that you need a permit to remove native vegetation or shelter belts.

“You can’t tell a farmer to build a fence that’s not going to keep sheep off the road. It would certainly introduce an interesting argument over legal liability, that’s for sure, especially if someone gets killed,” said Mr Cleeland.

“The Bass Coast Shire Council already has an extensive set of planning laws for agriculture. This document should be about setting town boundaries, not changing more rules that are going to further discourage farming.”