Parliament praise for couple

By Dion Teasdale
A WANDIN husband and wife team have been congratulated in State Parliament for helping connect their neighbourhood to natural gas.
Neville and Lorraine Forrester helped ensure more than 30 residences in their neighbourhood were connected to natural gas as part of the State Government’s $70 million regional natural gas roll-out.
The Forresters, who have lived in Wandin for more than 30 years, surveyed the LPG gas usage of residents in the vicinity of Hunter Road, Wandin.
They then lobbied the State Government and gas companies to have the area included in the natural gas roll-out.
Earlier this month, Evelyn MP Heather McTaggart thanked the Forresters for their hard work and community minded efforts in Parliament.
Ms McTaggart said she first met the Forresters at a community consultation meeting in February 2005.
“Lorraine was quite disappointed that their neighbourhood was not identified as the recipient of this $70 million State Government initiative,” Ms McTaggart said.
“Neville then undertook a process to survey his surrounding neighbours to ascertain the interest in pursuing connection to natural gas.”
Mr McTaggart said Neville visited 33 homes and gained access to information pertaining to the usage of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and actively promoted the gas program.
“He then forwarded three quotes to gas retailers and to his surprise he was told they would be connected without any additional costs,” she said.
“This was certainly a fantastic outcome for this group of residents, and I know they would like to commend and thank Neville for his hard work and commitment.”
Mrs Forrester said that, like many other pensioners and residents within the Yarra Valley, she never thought the area would have access to natural gas.
“We were connected two weeks ago and the difference is just wonderful,” she said.
“Having to heat our homes using wood or LPG gas was expensive and only did part of the job. Now we can heat the whole house.”
Mrs Forrester said the connection to natural gas would have a huge impact on residents in their neighbourhood.
“I’ve heard people in our area say they have had to choose between food and heating in the past, and some people have had to pay up to $5000 for LPG gas,” she said.
“Having natural gas will save people money and give them proper heating. It will make an enormous difference to the way people live their lives.”