City of Ballarat chief executive officer Richard Hancock and Mayor David Vendy extended the invitation to the group's president and vice-president during a meeting yesterday.

Cr Vendy said council was willing to talk through issues with the group, which is angered by plans to relocate the saleyards from La Trobe St to a site near Cardigan Village.

Cr Vendy said the group would also meet the consultants who recommended the site to council.

"They are keen to find out why the site was selected," he said. "They are still against that as the preferred site, but as I said to them, there's a lot of water to go under the bridge yet before we even get to the stage where we

apply for a planning permit."

CDAG president John Fraser welcomed the opportunity for the group to air its concerns with council.

"You don't get anywhere without talking," Mr Fraser said.

"They (Mr Hancock and Cr Vendy) told us a little of the process that they went through to come to this decision and it was very informative.

"We're willing to listen and they've told us that they're willing to listen, but we were very strong and told them again that they have definitely chosen the wrong site."

Mr Fraser said the group agreed that a new state-of-the-art saleyards facility was needed in the Ballarat area, but felt there were better alternatives than building them at Cardigan.

"It doesn't lend itself to transporting freight in and out. There are much better sites that they looked at I'm sure.

"I think if they listen closely to most people's thoughts on this matter they will soon learn that an alternative site is needed."

Mr Fraser said the action group had one thing on its agenda and that was to have the proposed saleyards site moved.

"It is black and white," he added.