Barbecuers get shelter on Westbury Village Green

Sharon Webb

MEANDER VALLEY Council has approved a BBQ shelter on the Westbury Village Green.

Westbury Rotary Club applied to build a shelter 3.5m x 5.65m x 2.75m high near the playground area. It will include the existing table and seats.

Planner Leanne Rabjohns wrote that the facility will provide extra opportunities for park users and is not anticipated to impact on privacy or overshadow adjoining dwellings.

But three residents objected.

Lynette Lenton wrote, ‘I am of the opinion that the proposed BBQ shelter is not appropriate for the Village Green as this is an area better suited to the purpose of family picnics, not BBQs.

‘The BBQ shelter on the Town Common has not been useable in the five years I have resided in Westbury, due, I assume to vandalism. The BBQ shelter at the recreation ground however is appropriate and used.’

John and Sheilagh Beale have privacy concerns.

‘We note that the BBQ structure will be sited directly opposite the entry to our property on the edge of the Green on the western side and will thus impact on our privacy and peaceful atmosphere which we now enjoy’, they wrote.

‘Siting the BBQ where it is planned will, from what we have heard, not be welcome by those who live on the western side of the Green at the bottom end of Lonsdale Lane. It is too close to their properties and will devalue them.

‘Furthermore, the diagram submitted by council is completely out of date by about 100 years. Please note there are eight properties along the western side of the Green and not three. The applicants should be made aware of this.’

Ms Rabjohns replied that passive recreation is an appropriate use of the area and that noise generated from the proposed BBQ shelter would be similar to that generated from persons using the existing picnic table.

‘The matter of devaluation of properties is not a matter dealt with under the Land Use Planning and Approval Act 1993.’

The use of the Village Green for this purpose does not require a permit and Heritage Tasmania consented to the move.