Better plan needed
The Great Depression yielded many great projects that have changed our country for the better. The post-war period also generated many great projects from a time of economic difficulty including locally, Rocklands Reservoir and the Otway Pipeline whose fresh water we drink daily. We have benefited for many decades from these projects.
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The planned $40 million upgrade to Warrnambool's treatment plant while necessary is just not good enough. We cannot continue to just make incremental upgrades, pumping our ever increasing volume of effluent into the ocean. It is a time for real leadership and vision.I call on you all to get out of your comfort zone and think big, transformational.
With stable regulated revenue and known cost base, you are in the perfect situation to do just that. Banks and governments would be falling over themselves to lend and grant to towards and support a truly visionary project.
I call on you to go to class A treatment, survey the residents with your next bill. They might support the slight increase in costs required. Could the expense be recouped over time by piping it north and selling it to farmers?
Think big. Could it be put into the Murray Darling System to increase environmental flows and help farmers and secure our food supply?
THINK BIG! This is the time where we are crying out for real leadership, this is your time to really lead.
David McIntyre, Warrnambool
Call for more consultation
Community consultation and transparency - the current buzz words at the Warrnambool City Council who seem to be talking the talk, but we are yet to see them walk the walk. During the 18/19 financial year, the council spent $927,000 on community consultation, but how much effect has this had on the council's decision-making processes?
We saw during the consultation for the breaking of the rate cap 97 per cent of residents didn't want an increase in rates, but the council voted it through anyway. The council need to do a better job of explaining the reason behind a decision and they also need to be acting in the interests of the community.
The councillors should be the ones explaining these decisions to the public as they are elected by the people to represent the views of the community, not the CEO or council officers. The councillors are also responsible for the transparency at the council; they should be releasing the staff survey and organisational review reports regardless of whether they are good or bad, to try and rebuild trust between the council and the community it serves.
The customer satisfaction survey this week should serve as a wake up call to the councillors, the community is losing faith in the direction the council is taking. With elections in October, it'll be time for the community to give their report on the councillor's performance.
Ben Blain, vice president, Warrnambool Ratepayers Association
Be a part of history
The Camperdown Gardens, a garden within a park, not the park.
The
minutes of the Trustees of the Camperdown Public Park 1869 to 1955 tell
us: 292 acres set aside in 1869 & 70.
Trustees first priority to
graze land to provide an income for improvements.
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1872 Harboard sets out fencing for 3 acre garden enclosure, provides layout
plan 1873, with planting 1874.
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1874 yard constructed for visitors horses during their stay.
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1885 Trustees request Caretaker spend less time in garden as neglecting other
works in the Park.
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Fireplace 1889 and telephone 1910 at the cottage in a place easily accessible
to the public would indicate provision for lengthy stays.
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By 1909 three picnic shelters, bathing house, boat shed and kiosks had been
built around the Park to encourage visitors to stay.
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1928 Tourist Bureau contacted re advertising Park as a resort.
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1932 letter to Scouts Victoria to encourage camping at the
Park.
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1948 Camping fees 2/6 per night be charged; same year golf course development
commenced.
Followed by golf course expansion, multipurpose sports complex and Olympic
standard horse trial course.
Garden enclosure remains at 3 acres as of 1874.
Camping and recreational activities have always been intrinsically linked with
the garden enclosure within the Public Park.
Council leased the caravan park to allow it to reach its full potential and
provide what park trustees commenced working for 150 years ago. It is time to be a part instead of apart if history is what matters.
Lyle Tune, Camperdown
Keep moratorium on gas
It is very disappointing that on June
16th, 2020 the Victorian Upper House voted to
lift the moratorium on conventional 'on-shore gas' mining in Victoria. This legislation
was rushed, during a period when normal political and
parliamentary processes have been disrupted, and it pre-empted the final report, from the Research Committee created to
advise the Victorian government, which is due at the end of June.
The lifting of the onshore gas moratorium does not meet the needs of Victorians at a time when the
dangers of fossil fuel reliance are more evident than ever. The claimed
economic and jobs creation benefits from lifting the moratorium appear to have
been deliberately exaggerated by the Victorian government. Many Victorians, particularly in regional areas, are against
the development of NEW Gas. So, why has it been rushed through
when it has so little to recommend it?
Perhaps
this is a product of the current crisis of democracy within the Victorian Labor Party, involving 'branch stacking', factional warring
and a failure of policy transparency. The interests of Victorians
appear to have come
last.
We
urge the government to defer
implementation
of the legislation and to reimpose the onshore gas
moratorium until the internal Labor Party investigation and police inquiries are
completed. Scrutiny of the
internal Labor Party processes involved in lifting the moratorium should
be part of the internal review.
Gilian
Blair, Secretary of SACA, Warrnambool
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