“Rather, liability for payment of [the] entitlements to the former staff of the Boroondara Tennis Centre existed as a consequence of the employment arrangements entered into with the former staff members,” the department said in a December 2023 letter.
The claim for a solatium payment was also rejected. The parties will meet for a directions hearing later this month.
The 3.7-hectare property had 23 tennis courts, a carpark, a clubhouse, a cafe, offices, a bungalow and open grass areas and bush. It also included a telecommunication tower that raised about $50,000 in rent a year for the council.
The new $26.7 million Monash Tennis Centre, with 18 courts, opened this year in Glen Waverley – jointly funded by the state government and Monash Council – to replace the Boroondara courts.
The 10-kilometre toll road, connecting the M80 Ring Road to the Eastern Freeway through Bulleen, was initially budgeted at $10 billion and then reassessed in 2019 at $15 billion. But the government revealed in December that the cost estimate was now $26 billion.
Loading
The cost of land acquisitions is included in the overall budget.
North East Link executive program director Jim Waller said the project was the biggest ever investment in Melbourne’s north-east. “It will take 15,000 trucks off local roads and transform the way people move around Melbourne,” he said.
The council declined to comment while the matter is before the courts.