It’s only taken them twenty four years to develop a relevant one, so we in Miners Rest have been looking forward to a plan that meets the requirements of a rapidly growing community.  

During workshops and community consultations, residents asked that the following important infrastructure matters be addressed:  long awaited flood mitigation, zoning, new subdivision block sizes, the impact of the new livestock saleyards, the northern development proposal, airport planning – relevant issues that should be seriously addressed for any modern township plan.  

One would expect this, but it didn’t happen.  

Council planners have decided to go their own way yet again.  

In the final draft, words such as:  “planning policy will encourage”, “council will undertake a city-wide review”, “comments noted”, have been used in Council’s response to community submissions on these important matters.  

The only reference to the inappropriate location of the new saleyards in their plan is:  “mindful that it (the saleyards) is an existing land use”.  

This new saleyards facility that Council forced on residents, has already had huge negative impact on Miners Rest, yet again, this is the only reference in a newly developed township plan that it even exists.  

Flood mitigation for Miners Rest has been talked about for years costing the Council thousands of dollars in consultants’ fees, yet Council still cannot come up with a coherent plan that will meet the needs of residents in flood prone areas.  

They are still talking about managing the “impact” of flooding, instead of getting on with a strategic plan.  

The final plan will be recommended for approval by Council this week, effectively ignoring a very large percentage of concerns raised by the residents.  

My question is, why bother with expensive consultants to facilitate workshops and consultation sessions, if Council is just going to ignore what the residents want for their own community?

Eileen McGhee, Miners Rest

Now that the state election is done and dusted, let us congratulate all the candidates for putting themselves forward to represent this great city in the Victorian Parliament.

It is said a community gets what it deserves when it comes to elections.

We can only hope that both Juliana Addison, the Member for Wendouree, and Michaela Settle, the Member for Buninyong, will place their community first before their parliamentary and political machinations.

My commiserations to those that weren’t successful; at least you had a go!

I must mention the Ballarat Rail Station Precinct and the Save our Station Campaign, I sincerely hope that we all can come to the table to ensure we get the best outcome for our central station precinct – a 21st-century all-abilities accessible transport hub with adequate car parking for commuters now and into the future.

Ron Egeberg, Soldiers Hill

Ron Egeberg, Soldiers Hill