Holidays as they were
As a Melbourne Westie, the best time to spend money in Geelong and Ballarat is during Melbourne Show and Cup Days because everything is open. As a Member of Ballarat & Geelong Agricultural Societies, Ex RASV Member and an ex employee of VRC Flemington, I know these societies rely on local public holidays for volunteers and local patrons. Ballarat and Geelong Shows get a big turnout of patrons from Melbourne's western suburbs on the Saturday and Sunday. Ballarat, Geelong and Golden Plains councils should not fix what is not broken.
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Peter Fitzgerald, Enfield
Debt elephant in the room
The Business Council of Australia has come out with a dire warning and blamed the parliament for not addressing budget repair. The Federal Government keeps talking about living within our means and trying to blame the voters for the fiscal pickle we are in. They've cut spending on services and pensions, in many instances affecting the most vulnerable. The recent Centrelink witch hunt has traumatised many and recovered relatively little in the scheme of things. If you really want to do "budget repair", end the billions in government waste and get serious about multinational tax evasion. It has been conservatively estimated by an insider that Australia is losing $50 billion a year in tax evasion. This staggering figure would make a vast difference to Australia's fiscal position
Stephen Juhasz, West Geelong
STATION TROUBLE AHEAD
I refer to recent letters to The Courier highlighting the need to maintain historic buildings that were part of Ballarat train station in the new Ballarat Station precinct plans.
If you survey the vacancy rates of hotels near to Ballarat Station -- Seymour's, The George, The Ansonia, Craig's -- there are already nice bedrooms available. There is no available business case for this hotel Convention Centre. "Build it and they will come?" That's also in a movie called "Field of Dreams".
But parking is a whole different matter. There are hundreds of cars parked every day on the old railway lands behind Ballarat Station. They are mostly commuters to work. So why not charge them for daily parking at the Ballarat station, or at least the historic part of it?
In 2010, when Wendouree Station was opened, there was sufficient parking. It's now packed, as are nearby daily street parking slots. I have many times not found a spot at Wendouree, and have had to drive down to Ballarat station to park instead.
If free train station parking is not on the cards, all valid Myki card holders should be allowed to continue to park in the renovated car park for no additional charge.
V/Line travel brings money to Ballarat, both from commuters and tourism but paid parking from a captive commuter and student customer base seems to be the only valid business case I can see.
Will Maki, Ballarat
Last week National Trust met with Save our Station Group. National Trust of Australia (Victoria) Chief Executive Officer Simon Ambrose said "The National Trust Board and Ballarat Branch have expressed great concern regarding the proposed development I can confirm that that the Trust will continue to advocate for the protection of the exceptional heritage values of the Ballarat Railway precinct."
During its presentation to the Trust SOS Ballarat noted that subdividing off more than half the precinct into private ownership, which includes the 1862 mostly intact, bluestone Goods Shed and weighbridges on both the north and south sides, into private ownership, chips away at the significance of the precinct as a whole. Other concerns are the proposal to convert half the interior into a convention centre with a wall dividing it off from the other half in which retail is proposed.
