Fixing the parking problem should be a priority
THE need for a radical change for the way car parking is assessed should not come as surprise to the City of Ballarat.
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Is the lack of parking a reason in some areas why there are so many vacant shops?
The planning scheme sets out standards for how many spaces are required for particular uses as well as procedures as to what decisions must be considered by council if these provisions are proposed to be reduced.
While council officers seem to understand the requirements, I am not sure councillors do.
It is not the responsibility of ratepayers to pay for the provision of parking spaces for developers.
The requirement of providing this facility is borne by the developers of residential development, health centres, etc and is no different for those expanding businesses in the CBD.
Other large municipalities have clearly defined policies in their planning schemes that require a cash in lieu payment if spaces can not be provided on site and there are no extenuating circumstances.
Council is then obligated to use this money in providing spaces in the area.
I understand the charge in Bendigo is in the order of $10,000 per space.
This has not stopped development in the CBD as without parking most businesses simply wouldn't survive.
Public transport may reduce the need for some parking, but to accept that most patrons at, say a wedding reception centre in the CBD on a Saturday night, will catch a bus is simply unrealistic.
The quicker the change happens the quicker the CBD will move forward.
Gerald Jenzen - Soldiers Hill
Upgrade of current saleyards only option
I AGREE with June Johnson's letter in regards to leaving the saleyards where they are.
With all the money spent and wasted in what has been done already, I believe that they could have upgraded the present sale yards.
There is plenty of land to do this where they are now.
What about all the agricultural businesses up there? If the saleyards move, what happens to them?
They will lose a lot of business through this silly move.
Upgrade the present ones and get on with it once and for all.
Lorraine Campbell-Cracknell - Invermay Park
Wake up to horrors of what’s happening at Nauru
"I THINK that the children need to be taken out of Nauru and our detention centres.
“There is no processing going on. It is indefinite detention and that is not humane": (Senator Singh, October 12).
How many more rapes will it take, before our government wakes up to the horrors going on in Nauru and Manus Islands - inside and outside the detention centre?
How much more abuse - to women and children - done by Australian Government direct and indirect employees?
How many more reports - by the UN, by the Salvation Army, by our own government?
How many more suicides, self-harm?
How many more asylum seekers must die or go stir-crazy under our duty-of-care?
How many ... before our government and Opposition realise the inhumane, out-of-sight, out-of-mind, detention of human beings is immoral and unjust?
Before providing a safe and secure place for children, women, and yes men, whose only crime is being born in the wrong time, wrong place, wrong situation?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind ...
Judy Bamberger - O'Connor, ACT
