A resident of Ballarat says she has serious concerns about the way a planning application was handled opposite her home in Frank Street.
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Jacqueline Cleverley says the development of what appears to have been two properties at 113 and 115 Frank Street has been a mystifying series of applications and withdrawals, but her main concern is the way the City of Ballarat dealt with her inquiries and objections, she says.
Planning permits supplied by the city show an application approved for a building listed at 115 Frank Street; Ms Cleverley says the building work has gone at a house numbered 113. She says this misled her in her inquiries into exactly what was taking place on the site when she approached council.
Not that it mattered, she says.
“The people at the desk down there, at the planning department, they were just awfully rude,” says Ms Cleverley.
“The guy at the desk, he was sitting there like this.” Ms Cleverley slumps in her chair.
“I thought, ‘he’s not interested in serving me’, so I went to the standing desk – and he talks to me through his computer, he’s doesn’t stand up and ask me to sit down, he just slouches.”
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Ms Cleverley says she suggested he didn’t seem overly interested in helping her.
“In the end we had a bit of a shouting match, and a guy on the phone at the other end of the office said, ‘oh there’s some stupid bitch here...’, so I said I’d like to speak to your boss.”
Ms Cleverley alleges she was told there was no current planning permit for the site, and that it had originally been approved in 2011, which she says was incorrect.
“’If you can’t find it, find me someone who can,’ I said. “I’ve been in here about it, I’ve talked to someone about it. It was terrible.”
The building site was revealed to be on one title only after recent planning documents were sent to the Cleverleys last week, which was a complete surprise to them, Ms Cleverley says.
“Even the postman knows it as 113 and 115,” she says.
So I asked council for the plans again, and I was told they were already archived, while they were still building!
- Jacqueline Cleverley
She says she queried exactly what was going on with council again, but heard nothing.
“Suddenly they start working on the building, demolishing the rear. So I asked council for the plans again, and I was told they were already archived, while they were still building!”
“My question still is – how did this building get approved in a heritage overlay area? What were the criteria used? It’s completely and utterly mystifying to me.”
