Bus fears spreading
IT WAS interesting to read in last week’s Independent about the effect proposed bus route changes would have on Newtown residents.
Users of the number-55 Newcomb bus will also be at a disadvantage if the proposed changes are implemented.
I managed to give feedback to Public Transport Victoria before the 20 December deadline, explaining that I am in my late 70s, have heart failure and arthritis and use a mobility walker.
Part of the reply I received was as follows: “While some people may need to walk further to reach a bus service, the benefits to the community will far outweigh the extra walking distance required.
“It is also expected that you must have a reasonable level of mobility to use public transport, and as such must be able to walk up to 400-600 metres or a five to 10-minute walk to reach a public transport stop”.
I am not the only elderly person who will be affected by the proposed changes in the Newcomb area and have also started a petition against the changes, which will be presented to parliament by Christine Couzens.
Yvonne Sardeson
Newcomb
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The real ‘scumbags’
IT IS disingenuous for Geelong’s mayor to call the people who populate the city mall, and who have every right to be there, derogatory names like “scumbags”.
Geelong’s council, police and State Government have been aware of the problem for many years but have simply reneged on their obligation to ensure peace and order, obviously preferring to save a precious buck.
If the “scumbags” can’t behave and the authorities cannot, or will not, implement initiatives to alleviate the problem, who is really the scumbag?
Council, as owner of the mall, has a responsibility for public order and safety, as does the Government, under whose auspices the police operate.
It is a little late, though welcome, to be calling for police to patrol the mall when that should have happened a long time ago when the problem was glaringly obvious.
The centralisation of bus stops made the mall area a focus for young people’s social activity, also attracting the associated problems.
Council built Market Square, reinvented the mall, fines motorists for illegally parking in the area and had a big hand in the redesign of the bus stops, with the attendant focussing of youth activity.
Council has a legal obligation to public order and safety and full knowledge of the problems attendant to its creation of the mall.
Council should not be surprised if it is on the end of some legal action some day for its failure to address problems of its own making.
Gary Oraniuk
Geelong West
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City Hall ignoring Belmont traders
BELMONT traders are getting sick of Geelong’s council ignoring our suburb.
The attention on the city area only is disturbing most traders. Sure, the city’s got problems but who caused them?
Who let Westfield Geelong blow up like an oversized fat pig? What the hell did the council think was going to happen?
The council is killing small Geelong-owned-and-operated businesses but when holes appear all over the city the council uses everyone’s money trying to undo the damage.
Everyone’s suffering but we at Belmont have been ignored.
Look at the Christmas decorations: the city got a $300,000 tree and spent up on decorations but Belmont got one small star and two trees with lights even though no one is in Belmont at night.
One year we Belmont traders purchased our own street decorations but the following year they were put up in another area.
Many businesses have closed at Belmont in the last year. We demand that council put equal effort into our area and stop allowing and helping big business close local businesses.
The constant expansion of retail outlets for extra rate money is short-sighted.
When local schools, hospitals, charities and sport clubs look for help, the big businesses say, ‘Sorry, only head office deals with these matters’, but small businesses have bent over backward helping, even when the very people asking won’t or don’t support them. Now we can’t afford to help.
We are Geelong also, so council should start helping everyone, not just the city.
Vince Albanese
Belmont
