LETTERS Traffic solution IT’S pretty obvious none of our local councillors live in Sorrento because if they had to put up with the traffic gridlock during the summer holidays they’d actually do something about it. I live near St Pauls Rd about one kilometre out of Sorrento and every day the traffic is banked up on Point Nepean and Melbourne roads. If I want to go to Portsea back beach it takes me 20-30 minutes just to get through Sorrento – it’s ridiculous. The cause of the congestion is because all these idiots want to drive up and down the main street of Sorrento looking for car parks that don’t exist, causing major traffic congestion. The simple solution is to ban cars from the main street during peak holiday times so all the traffic must keep moving. Cars can park behind Coles or even at Sorrento football ground with drivers and passengers walking into town or Mornington Peninsula Shire can provide a shuttle service from the oval to the main street. Having the main street for pedestrians only would make it so much more attractive, relaxing and safer while giving cafes the opportunity to have more outdoor tables. The shire could implement a temporary “green” space and provide options for live outdoor music and entertainment and art installations. It would make the street a more pleasant environment for everyone to enjoy. Who wants to sit outside having a coffee or meal next to a busy road breathing in carbon monoxide? The shire recently installed a children’s play area in front of the shops, which is all well and good but it’s right next to the road where they’re exposed to dangers of vehicles and
high levels of carbon monoxide and lead. It seems counter-intuitive. The shire has installed signs as you enter Sorrento saying “Live the Life” – does that mean come to Sorrento to sit in a traffic jam? It’s time this council got more creative and forward-thinking in addressing this problem. I don’t doubt many of the businesses in the main street would immediately oppose any idea of closing it off to cars, but as has been proven in other major tourist areas where similar plans have been implemented, it actually benefits them by making the street more of a tourist attraction. It could be done as a trial to see if there are benefits. Matthew Mackay, Sorrento
MP should heed community NEPEAN MP Martin Dixon’s advertising campaign is based on the statement “Protecting the Peninsula”. If he actually believes this, he should publicly renounce his previous support for the construction of the Southern Peninsula Aquatic Centre (SPA) on the Rosebud foreshore. Foreshore areas are great assets of the Mornington Peninsula and need to be protected from a completely inappropriate development such as SPA. While we all know politicians don’t like doing backflips, Mr Dixon has a genuine “get out” position. At the time of his support for the foreshore site, the shire council had neither purchased Wannaeue Place (Rosebud Central shopping centre) nor voted on the foreshore site as the preferred location for SPA. I think community members (that is, Mr Dixon’s electorate) who want
an aquatic centre will welcome his continued support, but perhaps the largest section of the community supporting the development SPA is completely against the foreshore location. Mr Dixon should get on the front foot now and publicly support SPA on a non-foreshore location, rather than find out first-hand the level of public discontent over the proposed location during November’s state elections. Ian Bennett, Fingal
Revealing SPA views THE two articles by Mornington Peninsula Shire councillors Hugh Fraser and David Gibb about the Southern Peninsula Aquatic Centre (The News, 21/1/14) are very revealing. I applaud Cr Hugh Fraser’s arguments (“A Rosebud foreshore pool or not?”) and find them appealing, being one of the three people at Boneo Market who refused to sign a petition to put SPA on the foreshore. I think Cr Fraser’s article has strengthened my resolve to oppose it. Rosebud is noted for its retirees. Cr Gibb (“Foreshore is best place for pool”) blithely skips over the fact that every time there is an increase in ratepayers’ costs, some find it difficult to meet the increases. Even for those who are employed, increases in rates – especially for a swimming pool – will not go down well. Some people in the Rosebud area, I believe, attend the Hastings pool for aquarobic sessions, etc. So the expected patrons for the Rosebud pool are likely to forego their Hastings visits, perhaps increasing that pool’s deficits.
Lastly, Cr Gibb’s lauding of the facility as increasing patronage of local cafes and restaurants is shot down by a cafe/restaurant being included in SPA. I can’t see patrons of the pool crossing the road to get their coffee and snacks when there is the opportunity to sit in the SPA drinking and eating while admiring the view. If SPA is built on the foreshore, it should be named Gibb’s Folly. And I think it is despicable that Cr Andrew Dixon, elected on a promise to vote against the foreshore site, has reneged. He should go far in politics. Name supplied, Rosebud
No foreshore THE scary thing about Cr David Gibb’s opinion piece (“Foreshore is best place for pool”, The News, 21/1/14) is that he believes it. If he had checked sites closer to home on his trip, he would have noted the aquatic centre site at Frankston is not on the foreshore and neither is the proposed site on Phillip Island, several kilometres from Cowes. Pelican Park at Hastings was built on a discontinued tip site. Waurn Ponds in Geelong is not on the foreshore, so where exactly is Cr Gibb’s Waurn Ponds? Since 2005, the shire had been continually told by the Labor state government to choose an inland site for the Southern Peninsula Aquatic Centre (SPA) because the Coastal Management Act requires foreshore structures to be coastal dependent. Liberal Environment Minister Ryan Smith has given “in principle” support for the use of Crown land for this folly (I don’t know if he realises the complex is getting bigger with every council meeting) but he has set several conditions of which only one has been
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met. The bus is not viable as a means of transport as it is linear. Unless you live on Point Nepean Rd, how can you access it without walking any distance from inland? Will children five years and under be allowed to travel on their own on the bus? The costings that were presented to councillors on 9 December were from 2005 and therefore out of date. The presenter could not give them an up-to-date set of figures on the night. Councillors therefore were voting for this large complex totally blind as far as costings were concerned. I have been told Rosebud Physiotherapy Centre was not allowed to include a warm water pool in its new establishment. Why? The council voted against David Gibb in 1997 when he wanted Rosebud foreshore for a very large marina (which was coastal dependent). Put SPA at Wannaeue Place or on shire (our) land in front of the shire offices in Boneo Rd if we must have our debt increased. John Cain, McCrae
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Southern Peninsula News 11 February 2014
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