Welcome to Seville

Not quite what I imagined seeing as I entered the airport at Seville in Spain for the Velo City conference...

A multiplication of agricultural houses...

The ABC reports:

The Wangaratta council has endorsed its draft rural land strategy.

Mayor Anthony Griffiths says the strategy will now be released for public comment.

He says the draft strategy is about ensuring agricultural land in rural areas is reserved for agriculture.

However, he says that does not mean a ban on building houses in rural areas.

"It's really aimed at ensuring the agricultural land in rural areas is reserved for agriculture," he said.

"Now a lot of people have read into that that we are actually prohibiting houses, in actual fact we are potentially opening up a bit more flexibility with houses, particularly houses that are needed for agricultural purposes."

Imagine being the cyclist...

the view at the bottom of 500 Collins...

Ponder this

Someone has got to do it...

At fairly late notice, I am off to Seville in Spain in two weeks  for the Velo City bike conference... as part of the development of a bid for Melbourne to host the 2014 conference.

This wind is blowing cold

This development is going to be interesting to follow: as the ABC notes extra responsibilities may mean either an even more patchwork approach than currently, or Councils unable to respond to the increased demands...

Planning Minister Matthew Guy has amended wind farm planning guidelines.

The amendment requires new wind farm planning applications to identify homes within two kilometres of turbines. It also includes new noise guidelines and makes local government the responsible planning authority for wind farms of all sizes.

Mr Guy says local councils will be offered assistance. "The Government has developed a working group within the department of planning and community development, to work with councils and with the MAV on wind farm issues," he said.

Rob Spence from the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) says local councils will need significantly more resources to deal with wind farm applications. "Our concern is the capacity of the councils to deal with this issue, given the technical skill and sort of financial requirements that the councils going to need to do an appropriate assessment."