A resident action group has lashed out at a decision from Glen Eira City Council to approve a polarising Woolworths development.
Stop The Elsternwick Towers has been fighting for over thxjmtzywree years to stop a former ABC site on Selywn St in Elsternwick from being turned into a Woolworths supermarket.
The group says council voted in secret on Tuesday last week to approve the development, with the group saying Glen Eira council needs to be held “accountable” and called out for its “cowardly” act.
Kathy Deacon, a member of Stop The Elsternwick Towers, told 3AW on Tuesday there are numerous issues with the plan.
“We’ve always maintained that this particular site in Selywn St is a really inappropriate site for a supermarket,” Ms Deacon said.
“It’s not on a main road … also, they want to locate the loading dock in a residential street. “The loading dock being located in this residential street is opposite a primary school, adjacent to a school crossing, but you also have to access this loading dock via two residential streets.”
The dispute dates all the way back to early 2019, with the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) refusing to give Woolworths a permit.
The plans have also twice been unanimously rejected by Glen Eira Council, most recently in August last year.
But Ms Deacon is unsure why the development has suddenly been approved.
“It was approved last Tuesday night and we only found out last Friday,” she said.
“Woolworths submitted plans without prejudice to the council and they voted in secret last Tuesday night and agreed to give Woolworths a permit.”
She also said the group hasn’t seen those plans; they just received a letter from the Director of Planning at Glen Eira Council, Ron Torres.
On what the group now plans to do, Ms Deacon said “we’re going to fight it”.
She also clarified the group is not opposed to development on the site – the supermarket itself is the issue.
There is another VCAT hearing starting on May 23, while the group is holding a community rally on Saturday from 11am at Elsternwick Plaza.
