Binningup land meeting ‘hijacked’

The Binningup Community Association president has slammed aBunbury city councillor for ‘‘hijacking’’ a community meeting in the beachside town last week.

Marie Dilley said Cr Brendan Kelly had used the meeting to ‘‘grandstand his own agenda’’ regarding environmental concerns about a development slated for the community by developer Mirvac.

The meeting was convened by Ms Dilley with the purpose of giving Binningup residents more information on the 200ha development which is set to provide more than 1000 residences in the town over the next 20 years.

‘‘Mr Kelly is not a resident of Binningup, he used the meeting to grandstand his own agenda,was not invited and tried to hijack the meeting,’’ she said.

‘‘Mr Kelly is a rabid environmentalist and that is his right but it is not his right to come and interrupt a meeting we had organised.’’

Cr Kelly hit back saying he had not hijacked the meeting.

‘‘I was affirmative in what I said, I think that’s false, a false perception,’’ he said.

‘‘If I’d wanted to hijack the meeting, I would have hijacked it.

‘‘Someone there accused me of being a radical and asked if I was going to bulldozemy house and build trees. I replied in some respect that that’s a dinosaur view.’’

Ms Dilley said she believed the 100 residents who had turned out for the meeting had legitimate questions to ask of two staff from Mirvac regarding beach access, boat ramps and a raft of other issues regarding the development, however Cr Kelly’s actions had made it difficult to get any information from Mirvac.

‘‘The purpose of the meeting was not to fire bullets, it was a time to ask questions,’’ Ms Dilley said.

‘‘I’m considering writing to the Mayor of Bunbury and telling him what we thought of one of his councillors.’’

Cr Kelly told the South Western Times the developer planned on bulldozing big areas of ‘‘high conservation value bushland’’ to make way for the development.

‘‘Mirvac were trying to tell the people of Binningup that this was the grand plan for their town,’’ he said.

A spokeswoman for developer Mirvac said the development was progressing through approvals processes and had been granted State and Federal environmental approval.