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Gippsland › Latest news › Craig Ingram

Ingram Fights For Stratford Community Over "Knob" Use

Independent Member for Gippsland East, Craig Ingram, has called on the State Government to pull DSE into line to allow continuation of community activities at the town’s popular Knob Reserve.

By Craig Ingram - 6th October 2010 - Back to News

Mr Ingram said the dead hand of government was well on display, with DSE recently informing the Stratford Pony Club that it cannot use the Knob Reserve for their horse trials and gymkhana even though equestrian events have been held on the site for decades. "DSE wrote to the club informing them of the decision, giving the club just three weeks notice," Mr Ingram said.

"The Knob has significant aboriginal cultural heritage as well as having important remnant red gum forest and grassy woodland.

"These assets have been protected and seem to have coexisted successfully with the uses of the site for the past century.

"This reserve has in the past a police turn-out paddock and has been used for events such as festivals, concerts and annual pony club events for many decades.

"The Knob Reserve is an important community facility and has been well managed for over a century by the community. "Now they are being punished for their positive and proactive management of the environmental and cultural heritage of the site.

"Clearly this is part of a bigger agenda by DSE to remove community events from the reserve. "In recent years they have removed the committee of management and have been extremely difficult for local community groups to deal with "The government must overrule this decision and allow the pony club to continue to conduct the one day event and gymkhana events at the site," Mr Ingram concluded.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com

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