Congratulations to all concerned. I had hoped for more editorial and photographs in the print edition of the Bendigo Advertiser on Saturday, immediately following the picnic, however I have been assured that the online coverage has been excellent, and the colourful images on page 12 of today`s paper are wonderful. Positive publicity such as this, generated not only via the media but also by word of mouth, the more likely it is that those who are attempting to denigrate the good name of our wonderful city will fail.

The world needs to know that Bendigo welcomes diversity and embraces minority groups with open arms. Those who choose violent means to oppose the building of the mosque need to know this.

It is interesting that the local group of residents who are behind the legal challenges against the mosque have, according to the national media, withdrawn their support for the organisation that is running the proposed protest scheduled for this coming Saturday. If that is true, it shows that no one in Bendigo wants them here.

Recently, I had the privilege of attending a function at the home of one of the leaders of the Bendigo Jewish community to celebrate an important holy day in the Jewish calendar. Apart from others of that religion, also in attendance were senior representatives of other faiths, including Muslim, Buddhist, Anglican and Catholic. The recognition and acceptance of multi-faiths is alive and well in Bendigo.

My plea, to the community at large, is to speak up, so that those who come from elsewhere to spread their racism and bigotry will hear your voices, and will realise that they are wasting their time, and are simply not welcome here.

Your article "Council stands firm on centre" (Bendigo Advertiser, October 3) must be some sick joke, if it were not so serious.

(Council’s) Stan Liacos continues to make unsubstantiated claims like "the options for halls in 2015 is more varied". Actually, it is not and never was just a "hall", it was a community leisure centre that Mr Liacos and council officers and six councillors have destroyed and are going to demolish.

He says "there's no demand for another hall”, but a Kangaroo Flat residents survey found that more than 82 per cent wanted the community's leisure centre retained. Oh, and then there were more than 3000 people who signed a petition demanding retention of the leisure centre.

"There's certainly demand for an aquatic centre," says Mr Liacos. We already have two aquatic centres, one at Eaglehawk and one in Bendigo, as well as two other 50-metre pools. What started out as a plan to replace the old Kangaroo Flat pool has morphed into the Taj Mahal. The most expensive aquatic centre in regional Victoria at $35 million to $40 million and counting. 

This does not include the loss of the $4 million leisure centre. An indoor 50m pool at Wodonga cost $12 million and a pool of similar complexity to the Kangaroo Flat one cost $13.85 million at Ballarat.

The superior benefits of the re-orientated siting of the aquatic centre were ignored. 

If the estimated 430,000 people annually attending the proposed aquatic centre ever eventuated, the proposed provision of only 187 car park spaces for workers and patrons are already totally inadequate.

Mr Liacos' claims of access to "everything" are false. Despite promises, no substantial drawings were provided, only schematics and a heavily redacted business case were made available.