The Standard in Warrnambool: Letters to the editor, opinion | July 31, 2021

Fines may follow to address this parking nightmare.

This is no fault of the Lyndoch staff, visitors or Medical Hub patients, but a failure of Lyndoch to provide safe, adequate parking while masterplans continue.

Residents of the area could foresee this very problem, especially after experiencing the first redevelopment last year.

We have been communicating our concerns to the council officers for more than a year, giving WCC plenty of time to ensure Lyndoch did not mirror the SouthWest Healthcare residential parking disaster.

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Nothing at all has been done, not even the 'planned' car park behind the Medical Hub for patients' use, instead parking illegally in streets and crossing an increasingly busy Hopkins Road.

One might think there will be plenty of parks once the medical centre is complete, but plans show it will only provide enough parking for the numerous staff and patrons who will use the centre.

No parking allocation has been made for Lyndoch staff or visitors, as this was not required as part of the permit approval.

The situation will worsen with Lyndoch's future plans including 84 villas, at the cost of more car parks reducing 65 to 42.

WCC and Lyndoch can no longer ignore the obvious.

We want to see a parking/traffic plan for the whole masterplan, rather than sorting the problem later expecting residents, staff and visitors to wear the consequences.

D & S Ahearn, Warrnambool

Montarosa site today is an empty paddock with no construction of any kind.

Princetown Wetland Estuary Preservation (PWEP) at VCAT in consultation gave Montarosa a permit with 70 conditions to build a 300-seat restaurant and 130 accommodations on the Princetown wetland. One condition was that he was not to enter his property via crown land for construction (this includes Princetown Receation Reserve and Parks Victoria).

Montarosa were to build a road into their land-locked property. The director had four years to do so.

But on June 28 (five days prior to the permit ending), he drove through the Princetown Recreation Reserve fence to gain access to the property.

This action was not only a direct contravene of the VCAT condition but also an act of vandalism and was rightly escorted off his property by police. Corangamite Shire made a public comment that Montarosa would be fined for their actions.

Montarosa then hurriedly made its road through wetland into their property.

PWEP have demonstrated peacefully and enforced all the conditions of the permit that they agreed to.

The Corangamite Shire does not have a compliance officer.

The Corangamite Planning personnel present during the construction of the road stated in the present of the local senior police officer that the building of the road does not begin the construction of the project.

The actions of the Corangamite Shire to say that they now are not fining Montarosa for their unlawful act of vandalism makes you question our local governance.

Linda Avery, Peterborough

In recent times we have all heard about the horrors of some aged care facilities.

We want to express our enormous gratitude for the wonderful staff at Lake Lodge and Swinton Wing at Lyndoch.

We have been involved with Lyndoch for the past 10 years, firstly with our mother and now with our father who has just passed away. Every member of the staff looked after our father as if he was a member of their own family.

The love and care they gave to him was far beyond expectations. It was magnificent.

The palliative care was given with genuine compassion, not only to our father but also to all of us as we sat and reminisced around his bedside. We have such admiration for these wonderful people who devote their lives to helping our elderly people at the end of their lives.

We are so grateful to everyone who was involved with our parents. We will never forget. Lyndoch is a very special place and may it remain so.

The Drew family (Gerard Drew, Warrnambool)

Minister for Health Martin Foley must categorically rule out merging Portland District Health with another health service. Recently, the Andrews Labor Government appointed several new people to the health service board that have no connection to the Portland Hospital or the Portland community.

The government's design, service and infrastructure plan for Victoria's health system showed the government was planning to move to a centralised health system. It's my fear there is another agenda at play here. The Andrews Government's board appointments are a deliberate tactic - they know a board with no long-term links to the hospital or the community will make it easier to make significant changes to services.

The state government also knows if the board had a majority of people who live in the community and have to face the people, their decisions will impact in the street every day, there is no chance a merger or cuts to services would be supported.

The Andrews Government has said it has no plans to merge PDH - but plans change quickly. The minister must face the community and categorically rule out any merger of Portland District Health with another health service.

A merger is not something that I will ever support and if the Andrews Labor Government does go down that path, I will fight hard against it.

Health services in our region already work hand in glove with each other already to ensure local people have the best care available to them - but they still have the ability to make decisions that work best for them and the communities they service.

The Andrews Labor Government should be looking at enhancing what is already happening locally through increased funding and support, not moving by stealth to merge and amalgamate.

Roma Britnell, South West Coast MP

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