It was unanimous “to do nothing is not an option” and that “the community must be consulted and their wishes be listened to”.

I thank Warrnambool City councillors Brian Kelson, Peter Hulin and Peter Sycopoulis for their efforts to have option A, upgrades to the existing ramp, as a first stage in the development with a commitment from council to seek further funding and continue with options B (semi-enclosed harbour) and C (fully enclosed harbour) in the future, a logical approach.

We are now stuck with option A.

Option A will not address the issue of the wave surge which is the very reason the reference groups were set up in the first place.  We do not know what the “porous material” will be as no one has done this before.

We have no designs or plans for Option A.  Yet we have been told that it will cost only $1.5 million and no money from Warrnambool Ratepayers will be used.  

Option A offers the same as we have now so we will effectively achieve nothing.  Previous attempts to upgrade the boat ramp with dredging has been unsuccessful.

WCC then sought funding by means of a government grant ($240K) in 2014, to set up the reference groups to develop safer launching and retrieval of boats in Lady Bay.

Options B & C would make it safe to launch and retrieve boats 100 per cent of the time. Isn’t this what we should strive for? Options B & C would have addressed issues for those who have disabilities being able to get on and off vessels. This will not be the case with option A.

The WCC on-line survey had 698 responses from the wider community.

Of these responses approximately 60 per cent preferred option C, 20 per cent for option B and 20 per cent for option A.

Looking at this again 80 per cent of the replies did not want option A.  Whatever happened to “listen to the community”?

Scaremongers are concerned about the introduction of marine pests (among other things) in Lady Bay and the Marine Sanctuary because of the probability of an increase in boaters if option B or C was implemented.

No one has stated exactly what pests might be introduced by boaters into Lady Bay and I fail to find any information from anyone regarding this.

I feel, along with others, that we were used in this process and our time wasted.

I am bitterly disappointed with the decision made by councillors. I attended the meeting when the decision was made on December 7 for option A after a vote of 4-3.

The demeanour of some of the councillors was deplorable. 

How can anyone vote for something you don’t know anything about - no plans, the material to construct this “porous ramp” is unknown, no definitive costings but it will only cost you $1.5 million. 

A very real opportunity has been missed.

The potential for tourism, of which this city is reliant, was huge. We have achieved nothing and the community was not listened to.

Steve Tippett, community reference group member, Warrnambool

It is unbelievable. Have the lunatics really taken over the asylum even considering giving this clown Adrian Bayley the time of day to appeal his sentence.  

An innocent beautiful girl lies dead because this person chose to follow, rape and kill her.

We really need to draw the line in the sand and stop people like this attempting to take advantage of laws set out to assist people who have genuine cases to appeal.

My blood is boiling at this person audacity and the poor parents of Jill Meagher must be just beside themselves.

Another Christmas without their daughter thanks to this piece of work.

Not happy that anyone even considers spending my tax dollars on this murderer.

David MacPhail, Warrnambool

Now that the Maritime Union of Australia has issued a statement about changing the berth of the MV Portland so that the cruise ship can dock in Portland (The Standard, December 18) the Glenelg Shire council can stop suggesting that the MUA is putting the local economy at risk (The Standard, December 16).

South West Coast MP Roma Britnell has also made the bizarre statement that the crew of MV Portland are “risking jobs and not saving jobs” and accused them of  “holding the town to ransom” (ABC, December 11 and 12).

Rather than making inaccurate and inflamatory statements and criticising workers who are trying to protect Australian jobs the shire and the local MP should be issuing statements of support and putting pressure on Alcoa to abandon its plan to employ a foreign ship and crew.

Alcoa’s suggestion that jobs at the Portland smelter are at risk if the MV Portland is not sold is ludicruous and is the real example of holding the town to ransom.

Alcoa is motivated by greed and is willing to not only sack these 40 workers but to place the jobs of all Australian transport workers in jeopardy, for a slight increase in profit.

Before the recent by-election Roma Britnell promised that, if elected, she would focus on saving and creating local jobs.

Supporting the crew members of MV Portland and standing up to Alcoa would be a good place to start.

Peter Martina, Warrnambool