Towns like Castlemaine are already witnessing the tree change revolution.

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As new housing estates are built to accommodate the demand, it surely makes sense to build a new supermarket where the estates are being established just outside the CBD.

A supermarket in the new Campbells Creek development for example would provide a hub for those moving there - would not interfere with the heritage of the existing town or impact traffic, or the environment to anything like the extent the proposed site does.

It would require some rezoning I believe so it's a mix of residential and commercial at the new site which is surely not too big a stretch.

Yes, we need a cheaper alternative supermarket - but why not build it in the green field sites where it will become the centre of a new hub?

Let's say, Civic Boulevard is admired for the 50 to 80-year-old trees in the beautiful streetscape.

People drive through to enjoy the vista.

Each property is privately owned and slowly, the properties are re-sold.

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Too often, the new owners strip their block of trees. After time, the street has become almost a treeless.

The beauty of the area is lost to the neighbours, the community and to the town.

The owners do own the trees. They are removed them at their whim and without any community input or permit.

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The City of Greater Bendigo has no management of this situation.

Trees enrich suburbs greatly but have little value for many individual owners.

We now need trees to be classified into A, B, C, etc values and a permit should be obtained to remove the best of them.

Many councils have introduced this system.

Shouldn't the community have a part to play in the character and beauty of their city?

I support Robyn Crothers' comments 12/2 on the bats in Rosalind Park.

The Bats arrived about a decade ago and have acclimatised well to our conditions.

Charles Darwin in his book Origins of the Species 1859 explains the process of evolution and they have coped well without our assistance.

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If the Council has a spare $30,000 it would be better spent on planning the next phases of Bendigo's development.

Bendigo infrastructure requires more planning and expenditure for the future to cope with the expected population increase to 200,000.

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