Bid for pledge on jobs deal

UP TO 50 new jobs might make their way to Yarra Glen through a VicForest relocation if the new mayor gets his way.
Yarra Ranges’ Mayor Jim Child has wasted no time in getting the Ethical Paper Pledge back on the council’s agenda.
He believes withdrawing the Yarra Ranges Council support for the pledge would encourage the State Government to go ahead with plans to relocate VicForests’ head office to the Yarra Ranges.
The deal, to relocate the Melbourne and Healesville offices to Yarra Glen with a possible 45 jobs, was taken “off the table” by Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh in May last year.
When commenting on the previous council’s pledge last May, councillor Child called the partnership “a disgrace”.
At tonight’s council meeting (Tuesday 11 December) in the Lilydale offices, Cr Child is due to put forward a motion recognising the council’s commitment and protection to the environment, while acknowledging that it purchases copy paper in line with its sustainable procurement policy.
The motion then seeks to withdraw the council’s direct involvement with the Wilderness Society’s Ethical Paper Pledge and write to VicForests expressing support for relocating the company’s head office to the Yarra Ranges.
The council adopted the motion to boycott Reflex brand paper, and made a public statement of support for The Wilderness Society’s online pledge to cease logging in Victoria’s native forests and water catchments during the Wednesday 27 April 2011 council meeting.
Business groups throughout the Yarra Ranges then mounted a campaign in June 2011 to put pressure on the council to back down from the pledge.
A letter signed by the Healesville, Lilydale, Mount Evelyn and Yarra Glen chambers of commerce, and supported by Warburton chamber of commerce, put forward a case for the VicForests relocation to Yarra Glen.
The Yarra Glen chamber was the only chamber to go as far as to call on the council to rescind the motion.
The councillors at the time, including current councillor Samantha Dunn who first moved the motion to back the EPP, said the council’s support for the EPP and the VicForests’ proposal were two different issues.
Local Liberal MPs Cindy McLeish, the Member for Seymour whose area covers Yarra Glen, and Christine Fyffe, Member for Evelyn, also in the Yarra Ranges shire, had said the EPP decision would mean the loss of valuable jobs to a struggling township.