The community of Dunsborough waits with bated breath for the result of next week’s State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) hearing, following a mass protest on Saturday which saw around 1000 people march against the proposal of a third service station in their town centre.
Pum2go action group spokesperson Trish Flower said the community wanted to make it clear they did not support the building of a new Puma service station in between the two existing service station in the main street of Dunsborough.
“We want the judge at SAT to know the community of Dunsborough are really opposed to this, we hope he or she will consider the amenity of the town, the visual impact, the safety, traffic and that we’re wanting to create a pedestrian friendly community,” she said.
“Now we are just trying to put our best efforts in to make our voices heard.
“We want people who have holiday homes in Dunsborough, who come down on holidays, who have homes in Dunsborough to know about it too and to know it will impact them,” she said.
Local resident and actor Myles Pollard said he attended the rally with his family, and that it was important to remember why the issue was going through the legal process.
“What’s so ludicrous about this is that it isn’t just the community who oppose this site, it’s the local council and government bodies who represent the people and have the town’s best interests at heart who have twice said no to it,” he said.
“It’s easy to forget the core argument here which is that Puma and the developers reclassified the petrol station as a 24-hour convenience store to get this through which is really deceptive.
“If SAT approves this development there’ll be an even bigger public backlash.”
Locals have already threatened to boycott the new Puma service station if the development goes ahead.
In the effort to balance this story C&I has made repeated efforts to contact Puma Energy Australia to find out what will company will do following either outcome of the SAT hearing, however the company refused to comment.
