The future of the 11 permanent tenants in the Daylesford Holiday Park now lies in the hands of the state government after the proprietors declined an offer to alter the park lease from the Hepburn Shire Council.
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It’s not a very community minded attitude to take and it’s really difficult for people with a community mindset to understand.
- Sebastian Klein - Hepburn Shire mayor
On Friday Hepburn Shire chief executive Aaron van Egmond met with the park owners to discuss the lease arrangements of the Crown Land park, which is leased off council.
Council produced an offer to alter the lease to ensure the permanent residents, who include a couple in their 90s who have resided there for more than 30 years, would be allowed to stay.
This would need the approval of the Suburban Development Minister Lily D’Ambrosio, who met with council representatives earlier this month.
If given the green light such an amendment would provide the tenants with special exemption to a 2011 Department of Environment, Land Water and Planning policy which prohibits the addition of permanent residents to Crown Land parks.
While some of the permanents have been present for decades, others arrived as recently as 2016.
Hepburn Shire mayor Sebastian Klein said the decision “seems to show (the proprietors’ decision) is more of an economic one than a legal one”.
“It’s not a very community minded attitude to take and it’s really difficult for people with a community mindset to understand,” Cr Klein said.
Proprietor Jodie Jagoe said “there was a discussion” between herself and Mr van Egmond “but nothing was agreed upon”.
She declined to comment on whether the proposal would be considered further if given the green light by the minister.
The declined offer all-but ends any chance of council coming to a direct resolution with the proprietors to the stoush which dates back to March, when the tenants were first given a one-year notice to leave the Victoria Park site.