Indigo Council has been slammed by a Victorian government panel for failing to consider the impacts of bushfire in its future plans for Stanley, where homes came under serious threat during 2009’s Black Saturday.
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Approval for the Stanley Structure Plan has been knocked back by the panel, at least until the council reviews how it will deal with the bushfire threat.
A report from Planning Panels Victoria was scathing of the council, saying it was surprising that fire risk was not mentioned at all in the first version of the plan.
“The panel finds it puzzling why the threat of bushfire has not been identified in the structure plan as one of the most significant planning issues for the town,” it stated.
“This would seem to be a major oversight and should have been addressed at a very early stage in the process.”
The Black Saturday inferno roared through the Stanley, Mudgegonga and Barwidgee Creek areas, destroying 30,000 hectares of land.
Stanley has traditionally been a farming community, but the council wanted to redefine the core village area as a “township zone”, rather than a “farm zone”.
This would allow the construction of places like a post office or medical centre.
The CFA revealed it had not been told about a new structure plan for Stanley by Indigo Council and only found out when contacted by the government panel.
Its submission to the panel objected to the council plan because there was no reference to dealing with the “extreme” bushfire risk.
The plan instead focused on tourism opportunities and addressing the falling population.
“In these landscapes, bushfires have the potential to develop and grow and they present a significant risk to people located within Stanley. The risk from bushfire is coupled with poor access in and out of Stanley, with access only available through vegetated areas,” the CFA stated.
Indigo Council altered the Stanley Structure Plan to references bushfires, after a panel hearing in June, but it was not enough for the plan to be approved.
The panel stated also the council needed to consider the wider consequences of creating a township zone in the Stanley village, as it was “not convinced that this has been properly thought through”.
The change in zoning will be considered again after the council’s review.
