As we slowly move toward a majority vaccinated in Australia, those who are resistant will seek to justify their refusal on varied grounds.

The basic tenets of most religions include love your neighbour and on this alone it's difficult to see how legitimate religious beliefs can justify infecting your neighbour.

Public health advice and empathy for all should drive the need to get vaccinated.

Tony Delaney, Warrnambool

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Congratulations to those involved in the collaborative effort of getting the shopfronts in Timor Street painted - how it has lifted the appearance of the streetscape.

In possibly the 1970s, a civic-minded citizen drew up and promoted a proposal for a Timor Street heritage precinct and they would be very pleased to see the state of the street now, some 50 years later.

Perhaps it is also time to turn attention across the street to the former Warrnambool Post Office building signage which would be more meaningful if the word "OLD" was placed in front of the existing "WARRNAMBOOL POST OFFICE 3280".

A similar addition has been very effectively made to the former (and not dissimilar) Echuca Post Office building. The signage now reads OLD ECHUCA POST OFFICE 3564.

Judy Poynton, Warrnambool

As one of the seven objectors, I wasn't so naive as to think there would never be development on this site, particularly following the approval for the adjacent Mervue Estate.

What I did expect however that the density for dwellings to be consistent with both the Mervue Estate and Younger Street. None of those sites are less than 600 square-metres. The majority have not been built on reclaimed flood plain. The high density approved for this site is a risk for increased rain run-off into the Merri Flood Plain.

The outflow of the Merri River has its limits. Given a repeat of last October's flood event (where there was road flooding in the Mervue Estate), it can only be hoped one or some of the 42 approval conditions properly include flood mitigation ensuring no increase in inundation further downstream.

Thank you to those councillors who did object. It is regrettable those who waved this through were unable to resist the ambitious plans of the developer who, even with a smaller development, stood to do very well with this proposal.

Marilyn Schroeder, Warrnambool

I visited Warrnambool recently after many years' absence and loved it all. In the Warrnambool Cemetery, there is a grave for Catherine Slattery (1820-1867) which is in wonderful condition. I am a descendant of her and I wonder who is looking after her gravesite so beautifully? Does she have other descendants living in your beautiful town? I know quite a lot about her and her other descendants and I would love to share information. My email address is pandapilgrim@gmail.com

Anne Pilgrim, Bellbrae

I am committed to making safety improvements at the intersection of Ardlie Street, Hider Street and Raglan Parade in Warrnambool and congratulate Donna Monaghan for the work she is doing to keep the issue alive.

This week in parliament I spoke about the need for improvements at this intersection and further along at the intersection of Fitzroy and Botanic roads.

In March last year I raised the issue with Minister for Roads Ben Carroll and was pleased that in response, the Department of Transport said it was prepared to install a school zone along the stretch of highway if the Warrnambool City Council was prepared to establish a supervised school crossing.

I've had follow-up discussions with mayor Vicki Jellie and I know this is something she and the council are exploring.

A school zone would be a start in making this intersection safer for pedestrians and I am committed to working with the council and the department to make it happen.

The department had also identified instillation of traffic lights at the intersection as the best way to cater for increased traffic and pedestrian movements.

I understand a submission had been lodged for funding for that project and I have asked for a progress report.

Lights would improve safety for motorists using that intersection - crash data shows there have been eight crashes there between 2014 and 2019 and three of those resulted in serious injuries. That data doesn't capture near-misses.

This intersection has been troublesome for a number of years and I am very keen to work with the department to ensure it is made safer for both pedestrians and motorists as soon as possible.

It is with regret I read of the intention of atheist/humanist groups using social media to influence people as to how to complete the upcoming national census.

Regret because I would have hoped the census was based on honest first responses.

In this light, I offer the following: Their thrust, in relation to Christianity, is that if you are lapsed, you are in fact 'anti'. This is a huge jump in logic.

Lapsed in real terms tends to mean an individual no longer attends services, not that they have developed a hostile negative stance towards the tradition. Lapsed means the door is still open.

As the mystic Meister Eckhart wrote, God is at home; it is we who are out for a walk.

Lapsed means we are out for a walk. If one believes in love, as an intangible, immeasurable but powerful force, then they believe in something greater than themselves. Of course, humanist/atheists experience love. It is a nonsense to suggest otherwise. However, to believe in a love that transcends all, even death, is another matter. And we can, and often do, believe this while we are metaphorically 'out for a walk'.

On census night, be honest. If you believe in the continuation of love after death, the possibility of something greater than our own humble humanness existing, i.e. cosmic love, but are over actually going to church for now, you are a still a person of religion.

Rev. Allan Ansell, Belmont

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