Letters To The Editor – May 10, 2018

Anglesea development concerns

Dear Editor,

As residents of Anglesea, we are concerned about the future development of the Alcoa freehold land, known as Area 10 and located on the east side of Betliegh Street.

As stated in the Master Plan, which was published in March, the proposed area is going to be rezoned and developed into residential and accommodation.

With the rezoning process to be completed by the end of 2018, please consider the beautiful bush and pristine habitat, in that particular area.

In the area being subdivided, at least make the lots no fewer than 1,000sqm, similar to the developed properties at Point Roadnight.

We would not like to see a developer come in and carve up the blocks into 400sqm, which would give the Surf Coast Shire more rateable properties. Doing so would ruin the local environment.

Annemarie and Michael McMahon
Anglesea

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More community engagement needed on borough plan

Dear Editor,

As readers will know, the Borough of Queenscliffe council is seeking feedback on its draft Council Managed Caravan Parks Masterplan.

This controversial plan has been four years in the making but with no real engagement with the local residents, the loyal seasonal campers who spend their summer holidays here and current accommodation providers.

The information session on Saturday was attended by concerned residents and a lot of campers unhappy with the plans and who had come down from Bendigo, Ballarat, and Melbourne for a 9am start.

The session merely consisted of half a dozen information boards scattered across the hall and a few copies of the 60-or-so-page plan (labelled not to be removed) plus a half-page financial analysis that you could take away.

Council officers and councillors were standing around (there were no chairs or tables), asking “do you have any questions?”.

We ask for genuine community engagement and a full disclosure of financial and other issues relating to this project, which if mismanaged will change our beloved borough forever.

Kate Jackson
Queenscliff

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Welling up at burning canoe

Dear Editor,

I want to applaud and thank everyone involved in the Mountain to Mouth extreme arts walk I went on last weekend.

It is far and away the most excellent public event I have ever attended.

I came from Melbourne especially to do the walk for the first time. I wish I had heard about it years ago. I enjoyed myself immensely. The concept was exquisite. The art work sublime. The walk challenging and rewarding. The performances professional and passionate.

I can hardly believe not more people were participating. Those who did gave so much.

The involvement of so many parts of the Geelong district community was superb. Team after team from a wide range of community groups carried the artistically envisioned canoe for the 80 kilometres in relays. Everyone’s contribution was a gift. I became deeply attached to the canoe and cried when it was burned in the final ceremony.

I appreciated all the little things that people contributed. The women who baked muffins and brought them down to the river at dawn for the walkers.

The quirky performances and little art pieces popping out of the landscape as we walked. All the various choirs and school groups. This was a walk with meaning. A walk about caring for and respecting the earth. Something we only need more of.

Being over 65, and not highly trained, I couldn’t walk the whole way, but I did get to most of the change-over stations to see the excellent art work, performances and the canoe being carried in and out. I managed to walk over 20 kilometres and thank the organisers for the excellent facilities at each stop over. The level of planning, organisation and attention to detail was unbelievable. To have hundreds of people walking from the You Yangs to the mouth of the Barwon River via Queenscliff and keep to scheduled was amazing.

The pace was pretty speedy so I am proud that I was able to walk 12 kilometres in two hours and 15 mins and come back for more the next day! Thanks for the minibus that picked me up when I conked out.

The whole event left me with a glorious feeling. I can hardly wait for the next Mountain to Mouth walk.

Chris Sitka
Northcote

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A broken system

Dear Editor,

I would like to thank Greg Wilson (“Being clear headed” Letters, April 26) for highlighting and seeking clarity on my position on Cr Libby Coker and some of the issues that have arisen under a Labor/Coker council.

Firstly, my issues with Cr Coker are purely political not personal, and are based on what she and the Surf Coast Shire “Labor council” have delivered (or not delivered as the case may be) to the community in the last decade.

I have personally been involved in the Save Bells Beach campaign, and the campaign to stop urban development in Spring Creek.

I’ve seen and experienced firsthand an us-and-them situation where we had to fight to stop Bells being turned into a 12 Apostles tourist attraction, and the fight for Spring Creek that has been strongly opposed by our local community and where lot numbers have been increased over and above planning recommendations, which favours the developers.

The community members and groups have fought for more than a decade now against a political council that shows little or no duty of care to the people who voted them in.

The council continues its state and federal political agendas, while we pay the price of an uncertain future as the councillors bicker among themselves, and some continue to further their own personal political careers, being Cr Coker and Cr Mc Kiterick (who is going to contest the state seat of Bellarine).

Mrs Coker should stand down as a councillor, so she can pursue her federal political career as she is now compromised as councillor. This is where the hypocrisy starts. As a councillor, we hear one thing but as federal candidate she is obliged to toe the party line, which is a conflict of interest.

This highlights the need for local councils to have candidates/councillors who are not members/affiliated with any state or federal political parties!

The pool issue is just a symptom of state/federal/local politics.

A surfing community without a pool, and 100,000 more people coming, and the pool was knocked back because of costs, or political posturing where Sarah Henderson backed the pool and Libby backed a stadium?

Being asked to be clear headed is actually a compliment, as I have done my due diligence on the current issues facing our community, and am sick and tired dealing with all the political agendas of people who care more about their careers than the community that elected them.

We have one of the most pro-development councils in Australia, who are having to serve their political masters in Spring Street first, and us last.

The system is broken and we are considering all options, including running political candidates ourselves!

Maurice Cole
Torquay

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A place where you feel salty and comfortable

Dear Editor,

Sometimes it’s difficult to put into words how you feel about things at times and so it is here.

It is becoming increasingly evident that we are losing very rapidly the core ideals that have made Torquay such a special place.

A place of “wellbeing”, a place where you feel salty and comfortable.

A place were your work and your chosen lifestyle are fused and balanced. I think that might be the key word; balance.

I implore our elected representatives, our councillors, to take a moment and reflect on the contents of the tens of thousands of community consultations from Spring Creek, Bells Beach and much much more, that are buried in council archives.

Ask yourselves: are our planners both local and state going to leave us with what we have so very clearly asked you to care for on our behalf?

Yes, we’ve got ovals and footpaths and nice schools and supermarkets (five shortly) but Torquay is so much more than that. We have a culture that is infused into our life space and it teaches our children something they can’t get in a school.

It’s a connectedness to our childhood and the place we learnt to swim and surf and feel the freedom that comes with that.

It’s the place where dreams and destinies live. That is what we want you to consider as you madly fill us up with more of what we have clearly told you we don’t want.

Councillors, why do you listen to politicians and faceless bureaucrats who have no conceptual understanding of those things mentioned here and ignore the people you represent, when time and time again we have clearly articulated what we would like you to do for us?

This is our home. We invested in this place, this “place of wellbeing”. We love it. And with things you love you just know when it’s not right; and councillors, it’s just not right.

Rodney Ford
Torquay

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Australia’s social conscience

Dear Editor,

The plight of the, already marginalised, single, over 55s, low income people here on the Bellarine is becoming dire in the current rental market.

As this area is demographically predominantly older aged, there are a great many older renters here trying to exist on a pension.

Many are now entering severe rental stress or having to leave the area, which they love, have often grown up in and have helped build the community, because of unaffordable rentals. This is not just bad news for them, it affects the infrastructure of the community.

If this continues, businesses will not survive as people who struggle with high rents or mortgages or leave houses empty (holiday houses are rapidly taking the place of permanent residents) do not spend as well and consistently as people with affordable rents, who live here permanently.

And many seniors who rent are volunteers in the community, ensuring valuable resources such as community hubs and information areas keep open. They help keep our community worth living in.

Yet the government has declared it will build no more social housing; it wants the private sector to build affordable rentals.

According to them, it isn’t their responsibility. I disagree strongly. Private builders and landlords want the best return they can get for their money which means top rents.

Are we going to make our older citizens who have given so much, homeless? Is there no social conscience in Australia any more?

Di Roberts
Portarlington