Organisers fuming over council fines

By Bridget Cook
ORGANISERS of the Easternats are up in smoke after being hit with almost $7000 worth of fines from the Greater Dandenong Council.
The annual event, which brought more than 25,000 spectators and a record-breaking 746 entrants to Sandown over the Easter weekend, was issued with six fines for breaches of the planning permit conditions.
Easternats organiser Jon Davison said the move has left him furious. He has called for an urgent meeting with the mayor Pinar Yesil to discuss the matter.
“We have organised this massive event, and brought people in off the streets and this is what we get,” he said.
Mr Davison said one of the conditions of the permit was no burnouts, however enforcement officers turned up and photographed drivers doing burnouts on the back straight.
“We put extra signs up on the back track and made constant notifications over the public address system about the rules, but with so many competitors it makes it hard to control,” he said.
Mr Davison said when enforcement officers arrived they were aggressive in the way they acted.
“They were looking for things to go wrong,” he said.
Mr Davison said it was also part of the conditions that they advertise a complaints hotline, which they have had no complaints to in the past few years. He said he felt the council was responding to a minority group of ratepayers, who seem to have a vendetta against this event. “Who is responding to the ratepayers at motels, service stations, mechanics and other groups who all benefit from this event?”
City of Greater Dandenong development services director Mal Baker confirmed that council issued six infringement notices, each worth $1130, on Saturday 11 April.
However he declined to comment further on the matters.