When car parking was reduced at the Big W site, original plans showed undercover parking and zero loss of spaces.

When council approved the GovHub, zero public parking spaces were in the building design approved by our council planners. No wonder our seniors are infrequent visitors.

Rob Vrieze, Lake Wendouree

Not surprised. One solution is to make it more expensive.

Typical council response - and when will they fix the roads? It is beyond a joke.

Adrian Bannister, Wendouree

I have just attended a music festival in Ballarat. I drove my electric car from Wangaratta to Ballarat. I used the EV charging station at Big W several times.

I wanted to ask the question as to whether the City of Ballarat is happy to host EV drivers who are tourists.

The reason I ask this question is because of the choice of location for the four Chargefox EV chargers.

These chargers are located at the rear of the Big W store, next to a loading bay and several rubbish skips.

Despite surveillance cameras, all four chargers have been vandalised. It is not possible to charge your vehicle without remote assistance from the operator.

I am a woman travelling solo. I was not comfortable using the chargers with so few people around.

I also felt that whoever had vandalised the charger may also vandalise a locked but unattended vehicle.

EV charging stations are expensive infrastructure - the Ballarat chargers have been funded by the state and federal governments and the RACV.

I will be writing to all these funding organisations to raise the issue of a poor choice of location in Ballarat.

Jan Baker, Wangaratta

The Victorian Government has 'forgiven' a $43 million loan to Tennis Australia.

Imagine how many potholes that sum would have fixed.

Darryl Cloonan, Ballarat

In recent weeks we've seen various people and authorities writing about the state of the road toll.

I remember back in the '60s-'70s when it reached 1,034 people killed in a single year.

We decided that was enough, and hitherto rejected impositions such as seat belts, breath-testing and roadworthy certificates were introduced.

We are now in the same situation, where - as these earlier provisions did - measures need to be introduced that will control behaviour to limit the road toll.

Two obvious measures come to mind - that will also have marked environmental benefits:

Prevent all vehicles from exceeding the relevant speed limit of the road on which the vehicle is travelling.

There is no logic in having vehicles on the road that can (effortlessly) exceed what is the legal speed limit.

AI is the latest craze; surely vehicles can be fitted with detectors that will restrict maximum speeds to that applicable to the road being travelled, with corresponding snappy little sensors fitted into roadside speed limit signs.

Limit the engine capacity of passenger cars to not more than 1500cc.

Modern vehicle engines are very efficient in terms of power output, thus high-powered engines are not required, all the more so if a vehicle is going to be limited to a maximum speed of 110kmh.

I have mostly limited myself to such a capacity and been able to ferry children around, travel long distances and pull a 6x4 trailer without effort.

Wanting to haul 4-plus tonnes of caravan around Australia is not a reason of itself for having vehicles of 4-plus litre capacity that will usually be found trundling around our suburbs and towns, with the capability of exceeding 200kmh and beating up the surface of our roads (including country ones).

And then there's the related issue of noise: whatever happened to restrictions on noisy vehicles?

Are mufflers a thing of the past, especially on those gross 'Harleys' (I speak as a BMW rider).

Cut the fantasy of the open road, ultimate freedom and power-craziness, and realise that the motor vehicle and, more importantly, the occupier/driver has to be seriously managed.

Hedley Thomson, Canadian

At last a story about our roads that makes so much sense and somebody has said what a lot of us have been saying for years.

Our soil is constantly expanding and contracting.

Roads used to be cambered so that water would run off to either side in a heavy downpour.

Roads are now built flat and there's nowhere for the water to go so it just lays there and "eats" through the asphalt (which is not thick enough to withstand anything these days).

Potholes are literally appearing overnight.

Golden Plains Shire spent quite a bit of time and money (I assume) fixing the road near the floodway on Haddon-Windermere Road a year ago.

In the last two weeks it has disintegrated into ruts (not just potholes) that go the full distance of the re-sealed section. These ruts are nearly 6 inches deep in places and if somebody hits them at night, they are probably going to burst two tyres at once. The whole section of road between Sago Hill Road and Carngham Road is a disaster waiting to happen. Trucks are using it constantly because they can't navigate through the idiotic roundabout on the Glenelg Highway at Smythes Creek.

Rhonda Petrie, Smythesdale

I attended the Council sponsored event last year. It was a BYO food, glasses, crockery, cutlery function at a cost of $68.

Alcohol could be purchased at restaurant prices - probably cost me $200 for the privilege to attend.

The "secret" location was Lydiard Street which was blocked off on Saturday morning for set up.

No surprise there. Value for money? Nah!

We did get some live music for a while and the council did not charge extra for the howling wind, rain and freezing temperatures we had to endure.

The mayor is kidding himself if he thinks "the event builds on the international reputation of Ballarat as an events destination".

Linda Robinson, Ballarat