no room for error in CBD parking
Like Mr Dyette, The Courier, Wednesday 11th October, I too have experienced a questionable outcome with the parking officials at the Ballarat City Council.
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On the 11th September I pulled into a parking Bay in Sturt St, a short distance from where I needed to shop. I put $2.00 in one of the most up to date parking metres, but subsequently it fell straight through to where the ticket should have been deposited . Thinking it was a malfunctioning machine, I retrieved my money and not having a phone with me to report my plight, went on my way. I returned within the hour to find I had a parking ticket. I went back to the metre to test it again, this time with a 20 cent coin which again fell straight through. I then tried a 50 cent which eventually produced a ticket. With the 50 cent ticket and Fine in hand, I visited the Council office to explain my situation. I too was asked to fill out a form requesting an internal review? Result - I received a letter requesting a payment of $65.00 for failing to pay the fee, obey instructions ( ring to report malfunction) and nobody else had made a report that day.
I am most disappointed with this outcome. As with Mr Dyette's experience, I found there was no room for fairness, understanding or perhaps an old fashion warning. Honesty was challenged by the hard- hearted workers at Council. If these modern parking metres are not working to optimal capacity, whose problem is that? And if I did have a phone with me that day, would I have had the right to be reimburse for my call to Council? I don't go to town to manage the parking metres and if they are not working as expected, why does it automatically become the users problem? Believe it or not, the following week the same thing happened to me in Drummond St but this time I was wiser than before.
Finally, the manner in which a senior visitor to our City (Mr Dyette) and his friends were treated by Council officials was nothing less than appalling.
Elizabeth Hanrahan, Dunnstown
Again ignoring the real victims of climate change
Tony Abbott knows full well that as a wealthy middle class Australian he will be insulated against the worst ravages of an unstable climate. Moreover his simplistic notion that it might be nice to be a bit warmer ignores the fact that climate change is associated with extremes at both ends of the temperature spectrum, as we saw with this winter’s devastating frosts resulting from cloudless night skies, and in the northern hemisphere where changes in the polar vortex saw cold extremes in places unfamiliar with them.
But then who would place their faith in this failed PM when it comes to public policy. This now disgraced and disgruntled individual who as prime minister was bereft of any ideas and together with Joe Hockey, used their opportunity to lead the country as a chance to carry out a petty vendetta against welfare recipients. If Tony Abbott is the poster boy for climate change denial then the movement really is in its last throes of decline.
Pat Hockey, Clunes
Questionable outcomes
In response to the article "Voluntary assisted dying: An alternative view" on 11 October 2017, I believe claiming that Physician Assisted Dying legislation improved palliative care in the American state of Oregon is not correct and the implications in believing that claim are very serious.
A letter to the Journal of Palliative Care by Hospice Analytics explains what is really going on in American states with Assisted Dying and that letter (Letter to Journal of Palliative Care, Nov 2016) explains how physician-assisted Death does not improve end-of-life care.
Fi Fraser, Hampton