Is there a conflict of interest in the rarefied altitude of Mt Hotham? People in the Aussie ski chat room www.ski.com.au think so.

Postings in the chat room query the relationship between the CEO of the Hotham Resort Management Board (RMB), Jim Atteridge, and the developer Vanovac.

Atteridge and Vanovac apparently jointly own a Canadian investment property at Red Mountain and now Vanovac is the sole beneficiary of a new road to be built to the door of their redeveloped ski lodge, Rodondo.

Locals objected to the road, which is to be built by the Hotham RMB at a cost of around $500,000, straight through sensitive alpine vegetation, however, the RMB took the objectors to the planning tribunal VCAT, sparing no cost in order to win.

As if skiing wasn’t expensive enough, now these web savvy skiers fear day trippers and Hotham rate payers will be footing the bill for the RMB’s new road and legal costs, through increased mountain entry fees and higher rates.

As one poster writes, “the point is that plenty of money has been wasted by a hopeless RMB on dubious projects. Meanwhile Mt Hotham still has 2nd rate public facilities”.

Read more in the www.ski.com.au chat room here: Rodondo Road, Davenport, Mt Hotham

CRIKEY: We don’t know much about the main players in this saga, but if any of our readers can enlighten us, send you comments into boss@crikey.com.au.