Waiting for answers
Plenty of information about Eureka Stadium: finishing date, date of first match, date of first AFL match, location of the media area, location of the toilets and many other great details. But still no mention of parking arrangements and public transport arrangements for getting 10000 people, perhaps 20000, to and from the ground. When are these arrangements going to be announced? When are any new parking areas going to be commenced?
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Joyce Currie, Wendouree
Dangerous precedents
Australian citizens, as well as asylum seekers, could be suffering from mental health problems because of our border control policies. Think of our navy personnel who are ordered to turn back the boats carrying desperate people seeking help. How many of these personnel have an innate desire to respond to human need by loving service? The mandatory secrecy surrounding 'turn backs' could be exacerbating mental health problems. Remember the consequences of Professor Philip Zimbardo's experiment at Stanford University in the USA in 1971. He appointed student volunteers to be guards and prisoners in a mock prison situation. So much evil was generated in the guards because they were free to abuse without restraint. The experiment had to be stopped after six days; never to be repeated. Do you imagine these turn backs of boats as calm situations, when orders from our border control must be obeyed? When did we give our politicians permission to be inhuman?
Diane Collacott, Ballarat
Poor investment
Sharon Knight's opinion piece in Friday’s Courier calls for an explanation. Surely she hasn't been listening to the numerous calls for a 'real world' development of the Ballarat rail precinct. One issue is the vehicle parking. What is VicRails projected daily commuter passenger figures for the year 2017? Where will they park? Governments at all levels and persuasions have over the last 60 years steadily been selling off public infrastructure and land for short term gain, only to leave taxpayers paying for the decision in perpetuity and at the same time, having reduced services and/or higher prices. Think electricity supply, Medibank Private etc. etc. Please don't proceed with a development that future generations will say, "What were they thinking"?
Neil Sinclair, Lake Wendouree
Sharon Knight just doesn't get it. Everyone recognises the need for investment in our sadly neglected Station Precinct. And everyone except Sharon and a few of her glued-on supporters recognize that the $25m of our taxpayer funds her government has pledged for the site should be spent on a transport hub and preserving our unique rail heritage.
The reason why the station is seriously run-down is due to lack of investment by Sharon and her predecessors. She can't seriously expect us to allow her to preside over the precinct's demolition by neglect, then use that as an excuse to flog it off. .A recent Courier survey shows that fewer than 1 in 10 people agree with the freehold title for the site being sold. Almost 19 in 20 people agree that the highest priority use for the site is for current and future transport, and heritage preservation and re-use.
Spending the $25m making the Station work better for commuters is an investment that will provide lasting public benefits, not just for the brief period of construction. And at the end of the day, we the people will still own the land, and have it to meet future demands as Ballarat grows.
A reduction in car parking; no improvements in disabled access; no plans for a local bus interchange; giving away half the site for a handful of beans; providing accommodation and under-sized convention facilities at a standard that will cut the throats of comparable existing businesses; and throwing $25m toward achieving this 'outstanding' result.
John Barnes, SOS Ballarat Group.