FOLLOWING an opinion from A. W. Grulke, attacking Gembrook MP Tammy Lobato and implying that McEwan MP Fran Bailey has everything under control, allowing Healesville Hospital to be the place for after hours medical services.
This is a major concern being felt through the Upper Yarra community. To start with, Healesville already has a hospital, something we lost in Warburton while Ms Bailey has been our federal member.
Healesville is 53 kilometres from Reefton, 39.5kms from Powelltown, 23kms from Yarra Junction, and 31kms from Hoddles Creek.
Ms Bailey has implied we should be happy to catch a bus from Warburton to Lilydale then wait for a connecting bus to Healesville, then repeat that trip to return home. And that’s for the lucky ones.
Bad luck if you live in Reefton, Powelltown, Hoddles Creek and other towns in the area if you don’t have a vehicle because there is no public transport. Ms Bailey should know that.
It is important for people to realise that many elderly people, single parents and young people live in the Upper Yarra without a vehicle, and they struggle to access services.
Ms Lobato has professionally and vigorously worked toward improving medical services in the Upper Yarra.
Some 2500 people across the valley signed a petition to have an after hours clinic in the Upper Yarra and if the petition was repeated I’m sure that number would swell immensely.
J. Banks
Wesburn
THE recent Healesville community meeting called to address the carnage on the Upper Yarra roads was most productive, as it covered many important concerns.
The police present should be commended for their presentations and the way they honestly answered questions. Statistics presented at the meeting showed the number of incidents dealt with by police are currently at levels similar to those from the year 2000.
To beat this problem it was recognised that there needs to be a partnership between the community and the police.
This sounded good until revelations about the local police strength came to light.
Healesville has six full-time officers, but four of these officers are on some form or another of extended leave. This leaves only two local officers to care for the children, families and pensioners of Healesville. However, these numbers are topped up with relief officers when required.
The local Labor MP was invited to respond and he declined. We have a government in Victoria that is flush with funds, yet Healesville continues to be left behind and the current situation of police numbers in Healesville is just not good enough. Steve Bracks and Ben Hardman promised more police for Victoria, what’s happened to Healesville’s share of these new recruits?
Why isn’t the local Labor MP standing up for Healesville?
Mike Dalmau
Liberal candidate
for Seymour
Acheron
I WOULD like to thank the locals and “down the liners” who joined me on Saturday 12 November on a wander around the old Warburton township.
Thanks for your enthusiasm, jovial company and coping with the unexpected challenges of the walk.
Thanks also to Bob Brooks, our friendly bus driver, and Tania Bowman. For those who missed out we hope to run another walk in early 2006.
Ellena Biggs,
Millgrove.
I WAS taken aback to see the headline (Mail, 8 November) with our newly re-installed councillor leading the push for Gas For Warburton.
What a good idea! Quite obviously we all want to see this come about, and as soon as possible. What made my eyes open wide was the fact that Cr Monika Keane was taking such a belligerent approach to achieving this aim.
I attended the information session held in the old council chamber by the gas company some months ago now, and was pleased to hear the company representatives outline their plans and answer questions from the locals.
Cr Keane was at that meeting. In fact I thought she actually hosted the evening as our council representative.
I may have been wrong on that point but I am not wrong about the fact that on that occasion she was warmly welcoming of the long awaited initiative.
Furthermore she must also have heard the company representatives impress upon people that if their street or their area did not appear on the preliminary plans, they should not be disheartened.
We were encouraged to get together with nearby residents as soon as possible and put up our case for inclusion. We were assured that all such applications would be considered and included if feasible.
We were also advised that the link to Warburton would probably have to be included in another round of funding owing to the expense involved in negotiating the difficult terrain between Millgrove and Warburton.
Nevertheless it was pointed out that, if a case was put up for such an extension in the initial phase, it would be seriously considered.
The problem seems to be that all of our public utilities were sold off to private enterprise during the Kennett regime. As things stand now it is only possible to provide public services if the companies interested in providing them can turn a penny from the exercise.
Your readers will have noted that the same problem exists with public transport. For facilities to be provided to Warburton residents, the companies involved will need to be convinced that the return on their investment will be worth the expense.
As with ‘public’ transport, government can encourage and subsidise but it can no longer call the tune.
Given that our councillor used similar tactics on the public transport issue one wonders if she actually understands the implications of this fundamental problem.
Lyn Kennedy,
Wesburn.
APART from the size, the proposal for a new supermarket in Yarra Glen has not really changed from the plans that were displayed earlier in the year. It is now reduced to only four times the size of the existing supermarket will detract from the village character of our town.
We were told that the developer was negotiating with the owners of the current supermarket about them moving to the new supermarket, but it now seems that an auction is being held, with the occupancy going to the highest bidder. What hope does a local small business couple have of outbidding a multi billion dollar company like Safeway?
The size of the building would suggest that it is targeted at a big company rather than a local independent. A Safeway store would be controlled by a head office in Sydney and offer the same impersonal service as a suburban supermarket. The proposal still has no link to the existing shops and still has a rooftop car park. How will this enhance the village character of our town?
The prime position in this proposal is occupied by the rooftop car park. There is an opportunity here to create one of the most picturesque café/restaurant precincts in Victoria, if the smaller shops were positioned in the north east corner, so that they had uninterrupted views of the water bodies, the racecourse and the mountains beyond.
This would of course require a reduction in size of the supermarket area, but I doubt that the developer would be interested in this, as a smaller floor area would not be as attractive to a big company “anchor” tenant. The lever for this proposal is the parkland area, which it is proposed will be owned by the developer and covered by a Section 173 agreement.
These agreements are about as water tight as a sieve, and the community would have no control over the maintenance and future improvement of this park. With a change of government in Spring Street and a sympathetic future council, thousands of cubic metres of fill material could be brought in and housing units constructed similar to the ones recently built to the north of the site. For this parkland area to be secure, it must be handed over to council to manage.
Barry Sheffield,
Yarra Glen
