Sturt Street Collisions
I have suggested to VicRoads (in response to the Sturt Street central bike track proposal) that a better solution for Sturt Street is to have a speed of 40km/h from Pleasant Street to Grenville Street (Dawson Street to Grenville Street already done) and at all uncontrolled intersections and median Strips change the Give Way signs to Stop signs.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
This would reduce the number of collisions and injuries.
Don Kelly, Lake Gardens.
Waste Management Fees
The city of Ballarat has just issued current Rate Notices. Rates as a whole seem to have risen by approx 10% .The most outstanding item on my Rate Notice is Waste Management Fee. Is this fee to cover all waste our council and administration that occurs annually?
Damien Vella, Delacombe.
I would like to tell this current bunch of councillors many people have just received there rate notices for this year and I can tell you the ones I have spoken too, aren’t that happy with their rate notices.I thought rates were only going up by around 3% but some peoples rates have gone up by a couple of hundred dollars. It’s a bit sneaky getting extra revenue out of people pockets buy revaluing people’s property when they only supposed to be going up by 3 %. I guess ratepayers will have the opportunity to tell councillors what they think of their rates going up when they vote at the next council elections
Geoff Rundell, Ballarat
Cheap Electricity
Climate change is tearing our federal parliament apart. This is despite the fact that the three major parties including the nationals have all acknowledged that it is a real and present danger that must be addressed. Nevertheless, in the pursuit of votes the conservatives are chasing the phantom of cheap electricity. Electricity, by the nature of the way we use it can never be cheap. Business and households alike will always ramp up use to the maximum that they can afford and beyond; bring the price down and households will simply use more. Like climate change denial it is a bizarre sideshow that distracts unhelpfully from the now pressing question of how climate change can be addressed immediately. Now, without substantial spring rains across the country, we face a summer from hell that looks set to lay waste to all of our prior notions of the immediacy of this threat.
Patrick Hockey, Clunes.
Disaster in the making
I was intrigued by the announcement at the weekend by Premier Dan Andrews that he proposes to spend $1.24 billion on the installation of solar panels on 650,00 Victorian homes as an election policy. This $1.24b does not include administration and training for the 6,000 new electrical mechanics required ( 4 years in training) to complete the electrical installations of such solar panels. An estimate stated in the media today claimed that the total cost would easily double under this scheme. As a licenced electrical mechanic and former electrical contractor, I can assure you that this is a grand opportunity for the shonkiest in our society to really come to life and seize the opportunity to ‘make a quid’. Solar panel installations require qualified licenced and expert tradespeople to complete the job.
Paul Jenkins, Alfredton.
Lake Burrumbeet South Shore
On a recent survey to the South Beach to see how the drought impacted on the south beach
we measured the length of the South Beach which measures 2,4 kms out of that 2,4 kms 1.7 kms is unusable because of the Reed growth along the 1,7 kms the reeds i believe came out of the Creek when the Floods came down the Creek and into the lake then pushed all over the Lake by the winds the 1.7 kms on the south beach is from the Road into the beach to within 100 meters of the Ski club that only leaves 700 meters of Beach for Skiing, Jet Skies, Swimmers, Fishermen and any Campers in the area not a great deal of space for the amount of people who was getting out there last year the lack of space could be a health and safety issue in the area as far as i know in the last 49 years these Reeds have not been on the South Beach they have been put there by floods and i don't see any reason they can't be removed so it's safer for uses of the South Beach area and sooner than later with the growth of the Ballarat Area places like Burrumbeet will become more important as a area to go to relax on weekends after a working week and having all the people crammed into one third of the South Beach won't be a good idea.
Bill Hammond, Wendouree.
Double heritage concern
I was delighted to read recently that our Council is leading a campaign to secure the future of Her Majesty’s Theatre,Australia’s oldest continuously operating theatre.Of those supporting the campaign are Council, the Committee for Ballarat, Commerce Ballarat and the Minister for Regional Development Jaala Pulford. Well done!
Why then haven’t these organisations and the minister supported the need for a 21st century transport hub at our historic central rail station.Why are you all allowing our historic station to decay, Look at the goods shed, look at the dilapidated facilities on both the south and north platforms, and have a good look at the main building and the tower, where pieces are falling off. Why is there no plan to completely restore the station’s facilities, and by the way why is there no consideration being given to people with disabilities.Let’s fix both her Maj and our rail station.
Terry Baker, Ballarat East
Training for the Real World.
NAPLAN looks like a practice run for kids who will be tested in jobs; under pressure, all day, multi tasking and sometimes being reprimanded for mistakes. It is also a guide as to how the school’s 3Rs are going. Before NAPLAN, kids were falling through the cracks and with NAPLAN, the same. Its a measure of how wide the cracks are. In my day, school inspectors would visit and fire questions at us and would judge the standard of the teacher on our answers. The teachers remained in the classroom, but somehow the inspectors got exterminated.
Colin Holmes, Ballarat.