I CERTAINLY hope that Yarra Glen is not transformed as suggested in the article Shops And Parklands Plan (Mail, 9 August).
Yarra Glen currently has considerable appeal through its quite simplicity.
One supermarket is quite adequate for daily needs, and often much more, and the service is friendly, helpful and pleasantly efficient.
Yarra Glen is a world apart from the competitiveness, bustle and activity of nearby towns and presently offers a distinct lifestyle choice.
Maybe one day even heavy highway traffic will respect the special peaceful ambience that is Yarra Glen and skirt around.
Ian Whitford
Steels Creek
THE Healesville Tennis Club has celebrated its 116th year. Recent negative publicity about the club from a former coach cannot dampen the resolve of the members to make Healesville Tennis Club a great place for the whole community to play tennis and be a welcome member.
I have listed a few things people might not have known about the Healesville Tennis Club.
1. Recent investment from the club, the Shire of Yarra Ranges and Sport and Recreation Victoria has transformed two unplayable courts and two new courts with state of the art lighting that are looking and playing magnificently. Try them out.
2. The Healesville Tennis Club is now in a unique position to offer three different types of playing surfaces at Queens Park and Don Road.
3. The club is an affiliated member of Tennis Victoria, which ensures the club acts in a best practice manner and keeps abreast of industry standards and legal requirements.
4. The club currently boasts over 150 members, which is a sign of a healthy club and it continues to grow.
5. The club currently runs nine different programs for tennis participation from juniors to seniors and is inclusive of people with a disability.
6. Social events are held regularly and enjoyed by those who attend.
7. Members are welcome and the Healesville Tennis Club is open to anyone wishing to apply. There is a process to be followed as per the constitution (based on the model rules set by Consumer Affairs), whereby all membership applications are ratified at the next monthly meeting. This is not a new process, and to date no application has been refused when this process has been followed.
8. A full coaching service is provided by Topline Tennis, which is accredited through Tennis Australia for people of all ages and abilities.
9. The club is committed to building a solid social basis and providing quality facilities for the Healesville community. It will continue to grow as the strongest tennis club in the Yarra Valley.
We look forward to seeing Mail readers at the Healesville Tennis Club. Contact club secretary Chris Wittkopp on 5962 4304.
Alan Honeycombe
President
Healesville Tennis Club
HOW many ratepayers, like myself, are frustrated by the failure of the Shire of Yarra Ranges to competently manage contractors?
On 9 August, I noted with due approval that the roadside drain on a weedridden section of our unmade road had been neatly cleaned out of gravel and sludge. I was shocked, however, to discover that the contractors had simply dumped the spoil further up the road, in more pristine surroundings on a weedfree patch of roadside native vegetation abutting the creek!
The roadside involved has the highest conservation significance rating in the shire and fronts Kinglake National Park. I complained to the shire and was told: “We will make them clean it up!”
However, future weed monitoring will now also be needed. Who will pay?
On two prior occasions recently, other significant drainage works along our road have had to be repeated, after having been poorly repaired by contractors at their first attempt.
Likewise, the last hard garbage collection in our area was a total stuffup, with waste still uncollected a month after the due date. The shire advised, at that time, that the contractors involved still had not even met their obligation to circulate to all households advice that the collection was due!
To me it seems obvious that shire contractors need stricter compliance guidelines and closer supervision.
Leigh Ahern
Yarra Glen
I WRITE regarding the proposed supermarket development in Yarra Glen.
Developer Chris O’Connor just doesn’t get it. Tarting up the original design with a couple brick arches and a “butterfly roof with timber poles reflecting the railway bridges”. Oh, please!
The issue is not development of the site per se, but not allowing Safeway into the town; we have a super market to meet the needs of the town staffed by people from our community.
Develop the site with shops and or residential buildings but by all things decent don’t let Safeway in.
As for statements such as “could create jobs”, what about the current stores?
How does Mr O’Connor reconcile the jobs lost and businesses closed with the fanciful figures quoted of job creation.
Yarra Glen is not a suburban hub. Is that what people want? That’s what they will get in five years if we let apathy steam roll us. Did readers notice the article didn’t use the word Safeway? This decision sits squarely with the residents of Yarra Glen.
Neil Hammond
Yarra Glen
AS A working mother trying to do the right thing environmentally, I would like to thank the Shire of Yarra Ranges for supporting the My Planet Recycling program for disposable nappies.
I am happy to hear that over 300 households in the shire have taken up this program which costs users $78 a fortnight to have your disposable nappies picked up and recycled into reusable packaging materials.
The result is over 43 tonnes of nappies have been diverted from landfill and recycled into other useful products.
The program is easy to use with a special bin and plastic bags provided and a fortnightly debit to your credit card.
While I was a devoted user of cloth nappies for my first child, I found it incredibly difficult to keep up with my second child while working and renovating. This service has provided me with an option. To further ease my guilt of using disposable nappies I also made a commitment to myself to tell all my friends with children still in nappies about this recycling service and three of them also picked it up.
With investment into this type of recycling technology only happening in three countries around the world, I am really pleased it is available to us locally.
Sera Blair
Healesville
