By Alesha Capone
Wyndham council has received a planning application seeking permission to build an $18 million, seven-storey entertainment and commercial complex in Truganina.
The application, for 231 Leakes Road, includes a gaming venue with a maximum of 70 poker machines, a licensed premises, a serviced apartment hotel and residential building and a request for a reduction in car parking requirements at the site.
Further details of the planning permit application, which is listed on the council’s website, have not yet been released to the public.
Wyndham Cr Josh Gilligan who chairs the council’s gambling reference advocacy group, said the application would be subjected to the council’s gaming policy under the Wyndham Planning Scheme.
Cr Gilligan said the policy was “designed to mitigate pokies harm in vulnerable communities like Truganina”.
“Council must prioritise a review of our gaming regulations as part of Wyndham’s Planning Scheme to ensure it remains fit for purpose, given the tsunami of pokies applications coming our way,” Cr Gilligan said.
Earlier this month, Cr Gilligan spoke out against a state government decision to add 80 new poker machine entitlements to Wyndham from 2022.
This means that in four years’ time, there could be 80 new poker machines installed across venues in Tarneit, Truganina and Point Cook, taking the area’s total number of electronic gaming machines from 903 machines to 983.
According to the Alliance for Gambling Reform, punters in the Tarneit electorate spent $54.9 million on electronic gaming machines during 2017-18.
The alliance’s director and spokesman Tim Costello said poker machine losses in Victoria were “concentrated” in areas of disadvantage.
Star Weekly contacted TM Design Group Australia, which lodged the planning permit application, for comment.
