FOBIF has submitted an objection to the planning permit application for a new supermarket in Duke Street Castlemaine. Our submission is essentially a repeat of our objection to a previous version of this permit application. We said at the time that ‘ we have no opinion on the wisdom of a second large supermarket in the town, or its location, or its design: we have to trust to the competence of council on these matters.
‘Our objection is solely related to the proposed landscape plantings for the development’.
Our second objection states: ‘FOBIF objected to a previous version of this application in July, on the grounds … that the landscaping proposal included the planting of several environmental weeds, something we have enough of already.
‘The new application seems to have deleted one of these plants—the Peppercorn—but left the others.
‘We therefore repeat our objection: this proposal should not be approved until the proponents accept a responsible practice on the matter of landscape planting. This should not be hard to do, and we’re at a loss as to why the proponents appear reluctant to do it.’
And we are at a loss. You would think that respect for ecology would be a basic part of the formation of a landscaper…but it seems this is not always the case.
Click on image for info/order page
Click on image for info/order page
Click on image for info/order page
I share FOBIF’s surprise that the new supermarket application hasn’t considered many of the former objections. I had asked that they have a covered walkway around the street frontage that could eventually join up with other covered walkways as Forest St. develops. Currently it is one of the most impossible streets to walk along for six months of the year as it is blasted by the summer sun. It seems odd to have no objections considered at all.