Letters To The Editor – March 8, 2018

Lorne councillor doing a good job

Dear Editor,

With regards to the letter headed “More consultation needed to manage growth” (March 1), I would like to mention that it has been my experience that our Lorne Ward councillor Clive Goldsworthy is always available to discuss any local matter at any time, takes the matter forward and has always followed up with any of the outcomes.

I don’t think that our ward could have a better representative.

Ric Addison
Lorne

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The wrong break leads some drivers right

Dear Editor,

I am from England, where we drive on the left, as in Australia, but I have driven in Australia over the last 25 years.

I have also driven in probably 30 countries, most of which drive on the right-hand side of the road.

As you would expect, England’s proximity to mainland Europe, where they all drive on the right, means we must adjust very quickly having crossed the English Channel on a ferry and disembarked to find ourselves driving on the right.

The main cause of accidents in mainland Europe, involving UK drivers visiting (say) France, is when their concentration is broken.

A classic example is when a Brit goes to fill up with petrol in France and comes out of the petrol station and instinctively goes to the left-hand side of the road…BANG!

Reason? Concentration was broken.

My idea for foreign tourists driving in Victoria (and Australia perhaps?) is that at every lay-by or look-out, or petrol station on the Great Ocean Road (and anywhere else for that matter) have big signs on the exit with: “URGENT. DRIVE ON THE LEFT!” in big red letters.

Do so in at least two or three other languages…Chinese, Japanese? Cost would be peanuts.

You rarely find instances of foreigners, who normally drive on the right, having problems over here, once settled into driving on the left.

Once on a straight road, there are probably no problems. But it’s when their concentration is broken by virtue of stopping for photos/petrol etc that the problems occur.

Signs actually on the main roads saying “we drive on the left in Australia” probably don’t help.

The driver is already in the mode of driving on the left. I may be wrong, but this is my experience of driving on the right over 40 years and never ever having had an accident abroad, but learning of others who unfortunately have.

Food for thought from a Pom.

Roger Russell
Torquay

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Smokestack’s got to go with Alcoa

Dear Editor,

For more than 40 years, the smokestack of the Anglesea coal plant belched toxic pollution into the air.

That included huge quantities of the respiratory irritant sulphur dioxide and particulates, which are recognised carcinogens.

No proper health study was even done in the Anglesea community, so we will never know the extent of the health damage, but anecdotal accounts of illnesses and deaths are widespread in the town.

As environment protection authority chief executive Nial Finegan made clear at one Alcoa CCN meeting the EPA issues licences to pollute and the fact that a licence has been issued does not mean that the licenced pollution source is safe.

The Anglesea community has now moved on from coal and is pulling together and looking forward to a positive future.

Everybody wants to see Alcoa leave with its head held high and for it to be remembered for its many positive contributions.

The way forward to achieve this is obvious – the smokestack should go and Alcoa must respect the community’s very clearly expressed wishes in relation to the future uses of the coal mine and plant land.

Andrew Laird
Anglesea

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Stacks on

Dear Editor,

The Anglesea Power Station and its chimney are an important part of our local history.

It provided power and jobs over generations and to demolish them would be a mistake.

They are also a reminder of how community action shut them down due to grave pollution concerns.

A warning never to make such a mistake again in the future.

Let’s welcome some more creative ideas as to their future preservation.

They could be an icon in our region for locals and tourists alike.

Tim Nolan
Anglesea

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Roads in south west are a disgrace

Dear Editor,

Travelling constantly around the Surf Coast and wider areas I have several observations to make.

Is it not possible to build roads that don’t need resurfacing every 12 months? Roads in Victoria in the south west are a disgrace.

The wire barriers that have been erected are also of great concern. More lives could be lost if we have another Black Saturday fire than the accidents they are meant to prevent. Fire trucks need instant access to enable efficient control.

The money spent on these barriers would be far better spent on long-term and better quality work on roads that last years instead of the patchwork system we have in place now.

Also, I would like to know who owns the company that has the contract for these barriers? I think the answer would be interesting.

Meg Taylor
Surf Coast

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Action at the cemetery

Dear Editor,

In August last year, The Bellbrae Cemetery Trust wrote to you regarding its need of new Trustees, and the lack of response to the Department of Human Service’s advertising for new Trustees.

You published our letter, and we now wish to thank you and your readers for the great response to the Trust’s need of new Trustees.

It is a long process to appoint Trustees, some five months by the time training is undertaken and the Department of Human Services and the Governor agrees to their appointment.

We now have five new Trustees to add to the existing five, making 10 Trustees and a new Secretary.

Since that time, with the experienced assistance of the new Trustees, the Trust has obtained plans and quotes for the establishment of the Eastern Section of the Cemetery to provide a further approximately 125 graves, including monumental graves, and approximately 70 ashes memorial gardens.

Planning is also well underway to open up of the northern section of the cemetery to provide ample graves to satisfy the needs of our growing community.

In addition, The Trust has been aware of the need for weeding and clearing the cemetery, and has started on a massive clean-up of the cemetery that has included cutting the grass, trimming trees and shrubs and some weeding, and will continue this week, to ensure the cemetery will continue to be a place we are all proud of and would be happy for anyone wishing to call our cemetery their final resting place.

Keith Grossman
Chair, Bellbrae Cemetery Trust

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Rainbow rant

Dear Editor,

Heather, Heather, Heather… your rainbow rant goes on (“Rainbow flag continues to raise questions at council”, Surf Coast Times, March 1) – again divisive and shameful.

You use to be a health practitioner, you must know our LGBTIQ community needs time to heal, be married, publicly enjoy life’s joys that have been denied to us for generations by discriminatory people in power like you.

Just a little insight from a 61-year-old that was lucky enough to survive verbal and great physical abuse.

John De Witt
Torquay

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March 1 edition ticks some boxes

Dear Editor,

As a market gardeners’ daughter, I like the Rural Roundup pages, especially at a time when so many rural areas are being lost to a sea of grey roofs. It’s a good way to bring farming information to the townies.

The return of the fox and wild dog bounties (“Fox and wild dog bounty resumes”, March 1) will hopefully reduce the numbers of these wily hunters.

But the bounty system for reducing feral or rogue animals can sometimes be corrupted.

When Seattle put a bounty on rats during the 1907 bubonic plague outbreak, the town nearly went broke when enterprising young boys started breeding rats to ensure a bounteous flow of pocket money.

Another pleasing feature in this edition was the expansion to three pages of readers’ comments.

As well as being a platform for community ideas I believe the letters segment of any newspaper to be a barometer whereby the editor can gauge whether his newspaper is being read, and if it is holding the interest of the public. If no-one is commenting or responding, is anyone reading?

This is especially so for regional newspapers which are the voice of the community.

It seems that the Times newspapers are on the right track.

Melva Stott
Anglesea

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Colac Otway Shire withholds permit

Dear Editor,

It is encouraging to learn that the Colac Otway Shire has expressed an absence of support for Amy’s Gran Fondo events in 2019 and 2020.

However, the media release the shire put out states that the council continues to express the desire to work with the Amy Gillett Foundation (AGF) to provide an event which meets the expectation of participants, visitors and, don’t let us forget, the community of Apollo Bay and the hinterland.

The shire has carried out repeated reviews of this event as well as community surveys, which highlighted significant dissatisfaction.

It would appear that the AGF was not prepared to make adjustments. It seems there is an attitude within the organisation of “be with us or against us, it’s your choice”!

This event also covers roads within Lorne Ward in the Surf Coast Shire, so it seemed expedient to canvass opinion from the Surf Coast Shire’s mayor and Lorne Ward councillor.

Unfortunately, despite several attempts to contact them, I have yet to hear back.

A shire officer I contacted seemed quite satisfied with the surveys conducted by the event organisers themselves.

In my professional life, I designed and ran surveys. I know from past experience that it is easy to slant the questions in such a way as to achieve the outcome the client is looking for!

I am not against Amy’s Gran Fondo, but I do wish it was more balanced between recreational desires and the needs of the broader community.

I believe AGF is allowed too much latitude to produce an event to their own liking.

Ongoing safety issues do not appear to be on the agenda.

This must change and VicRoads, both shires, event managers, cycling clubs and community organisations need to work in tandem to achieve an outcome that benefits everyone.

Juliet Beatty
Deans Marsh

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Sustainable development commitment needs renewal

Dear Editor,

In recent weeks I have a read several passionate letters in the Surf Coast Times protesting about both the speed and extent of the expanding human footprint on Torquay and its surrounding region.

As a Jan Juc resident for more than 30 years, I wish to endorse these sentiments, not because I wish to prevent people moving to or visiting this wonderful town, but more because I have noticed that as more and more housing developments get approved and built around this town, the character and charm of this wonderful town starts to fade.

In fact, research shows that almost every town along the Australian coastline seems to be playing out a similar unpleasant scenario.

In most cases well-meaning townspeople (and councillors) accept new proposals for growth and expansion simply because they think it will help build and maintain a healthy economy, and then as more and more people quickly move into the area things initially look pretty good.

But as with all quick and unchecked expansion, and as higher density population grows, the accompanying side effects begin to create bigger and bigger problems for communities to overcome.

More to the point, we know from history, that as communities fail to keep ahead of the problems created by an overly quick population expansion, they soon become hot beds for environmental destruction, higher unemployment and increased crime.

This is why I seek to remind our councillors about the Surf Coast Shire’s long-held commitment to the sustainable development of this town.

Sustainable development that is slower rather than quicker in its unfolding, simply because with slow and carefully checked expansion our community (and its representatives) will have more time to protect and enhance the values that have long made (and kept) this beautiful coastal town a rural paradise, not an urban sprawl.

Gordon Stammers
Jan Juc

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Politics in a seaside ghetto

Dear Editor,

I am following up on the opinions of Rodney Ford, Ray Page and myself shared in these pages over the past few weeks and am the bearer of good and sad news!

The good news is that in the last few weeks, the Anglesea /Alcoa issue has come to a head, as the local community learns that an area of the Alcoa site is to become a large residential development contrary to the community’s wishes, like what has unfolded in the Torquay/Spring Creek disaster.

The community has now launched a campaign to save Anglesea from the developers/Surf Coast Shire/state government. They have already had an independent community meeting, started a social media campaign and fired up the local Torquay community groups.

So the good news is that Anglesea is up for a fight, and now Torquay is following with the first meeting of Torquay’s community groups held on Wednesday March 7 to consider and develop a campaign to get an “impact study” done for the Armstrong Creek/Torquay/Anglesea areas.

We will be considering a raft of options, including creating a Surf Coast campaign to all residents to expose the lack of planning, the rampant disregard for community input, and discus the broken system that is only delivering outcomes for developers at our expense.

This is having a detrimental effect on all residents, and if we are already seeing and experiencing overcrowding problems now, and we still have a 100,000+ residents to come, are we creating a seaside ghetto?

So the sad news is that we all have been cross referencing our experiences with a range of Surf Coast Shire issues over the last few decades and it has become increasingly clear that the developers lobby the state government to create growth nodes and opportunities for billions of dollars of development.

The state government then tells the respective councils what to do; meanwhile, we elect local councillors to represent us, but in fact they then enact what Spring Street tells them to do, and as Ray asked (“More consultation needed to manage growth”, Letters, March 1), what is behind the council decision-making process.

It has become clear now that the decision making is done on a state level, councils are the buffer zone between the developers and communities, where we are treated like mushrooms: kept in the dark and fed faeces, and if you think that’s not true, how the hell did we end up with a predicted 130,000 residents for the wider region and no impact plan. Spring Creek is an urban development and now there’s more development earmarked for the Anglesea/Alcoa mine area.

So stay tuned as the short-term community actions could range from holding an independent community meeting, protesting with a rally at the G21 conference, creating a community political party etc as we just do not/cannot trust our politicians anymore, as their actions have shown their true colours! More next week!

Maurice Cole
Torquay

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Know epilepsy

Dear Editor,

For Purple Day 2018, coming up on March 26, Australians with epilepsy are encouraging friends, family members, colleagues and the wider community to become better informed about epilepsy to reduce the fear and misconceptions often associated with the condition.

Around 250,000 Australians are diagnosed with epilepsy, and more than 65 million people worldwide, making it the world’s most common serious brain disorder. More people have epilepsy than have Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy combined, however, epilepsy remains poorly understood – and often feared – by much of the community.

That’s why we’re using the tagline “Know epilepsy. No fear” this year, to promote the idea that knowledge is power when it comes to understanding and assisting someone with epilepsy.

Epilepsy Action Australia has developed an extensive suite of online resources designed to increase understanding and awareness of epilepsy in the community, including seizure first aid advice, with most material available free of charge on our website epilepsy.org.au.

Ideas and suggestions for ways to get involved in Purple Day this year can also be found on the website.

On behalf of all Australians living with epilepsy, thank you in advance to the people in your region for supporting Epilepsy Action Australia. Your support helps to ensure people living with the condition can lead optimal lives.

Carol Ireland
Chief Executive Officer, Epilepsy Action Australia

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Potholes in government policy

Dear Editor,

I take issue with the Andrews Government’s decision to take out full-page ads while Western Victorian roads are falling to bits.

The ads, defending the excessive spending of the installation of wire cable barriers would be better spent upgrading our roads and bridges.

While our Government is infatuated with corralling cars with wire ropes, they are completely ignoring the big issue that rural roads are deteriorating before our eyes.

Following Labor’s abandonment of the Country Roads and Bridges Program, rural shires cannot afford upgrades or repairs to our rural roads, bridges and dangerous intersections, leaving potholes and dangerously uneven road surfaces littering Western Victoria’s road network.

The full-page adverts, which appeared in regional media, cost taxpayers thousands and thousands of dollars. I find this to be a disgraceful act of public spending; Victorian’s deserve a government that listens to their concerns and then acts upon them.

Taking out full-page ads to defend a government’s excessive spending is not going to fix our roads or save any lives.

Instead, our Premier continues to placate city drivers and ignore the hard-working regional Victorians.

Simon Ramsay
Shadow Assistant Minister for Agriculture