By Esther Lauaki
Hume council has rejected accusations that it has been double-dipping on land that was earmarked for a multi-level carpark in Sunbury.
Western Region MP Bernie Finn, a Bulla resident, earlier this month called for a state government investigation into a parking levy charged to Sunbury traders by Hume council’s predecessor, the Shire of Bulla.
He claimed Hume council inherited the levy money and used it to buy land to build a carpark – but instead leased the land to VicTrack.
“That separate rate was imposed on traders in Sunbury and continued for many years,” Mr Finn told Parliament.
“The Hume council … is winning both ways. Hume council has the levy money from the traders and it is also receiving money from VicTrack.
This stinks, to say the very least.”
Mr Finn based his claims on a 2011 Sunbury Town Centre Database that the council said was not an official council document.
Hume corporate services director Daryl Whitfort told
Star Weekly that Mr Finn was “a long way off the facts”.
Mr Whitfort said that traders stopped paying the levy in 1997 and the land was not leased to VicTrack until later.
“Back in 1977, the Shire of Bulla was not providing any carparking at the shopping centre … so it decided that it would lease some land,
take out a loan to build some carparks and provide a special benefit for those business operators,” Mr Whitfort said.
“That is why traders paid a separate rate to the Shire of Bulla for a term of a 20-year lease.
“The former Shire of Bulla didn’t own any of that land until 1992 when it decided to buy it – up until then it belonged to the railway corporation.
“The separate rate that was paid by business traders was for leasing the land and paying back the loan to construct carparks … and maintaining it. It was never to build a multi-level carpark.”
