Letters to the editor: Roads, flood overlay and duck hunting

All approved by council when, a better site was available at the time and pushed for by the ratepayers yet council ignored their input. Luckily the Epsom primary school did not move to the site as was stated by the Late CEO John McLean.

The plans released by NRG Property (Bendigo Advertiser 13/01/2022) show that the Midland Highway north bound will not change from the current situation, nor with East bound on Howard Street, this will only cause further traffic build ups.

It is time that the state and federal governments put money into to duplicate of the Midland Highway all the way through from White Hills to Huntly and alter the intersection of Howard Street to cater for the current and future traffic volumes, not a band aid solution as proposed by NRG Property.

I am sure that the volume of traffic that currently uses the Midland Highway would be well over the government's own trigger point for the duplication of the highway.

Last year, the COGB placed flood overlays over the McIvor Creek at Heathcote to restrict development within the floodplain. This was as a result of six years of investigation.

Last Saturday Amendment C263gben appeared in the Addy advising the amendment to (among other things) place the Flood Overlay over the Bullock Creek at Marong which will restrict development in the floodplain of the creek. This has taken five years.

In August 2021, almost two years ago, a group of concerned Maiden Gully residents wrote to council requesting them to urgently place Flood Overlay or/and Urban Flood Zone over both the Myers Creek and Maiden Gully Creek to restrict development with the floodplains.

To date nothing has happened and no response has been received.

Yet in the past two years subdivisions have been approved in the floodplain. Recently both the council (through their lawyer) and some residents appeared at VCAT to contest a developer wishing to overturn the council decision to refuse a permit for homes to be located in the Myers Creek floodplain.

We and the council are still awaiting VCAT's decision (hearing was April 4). Ratepayers paid for the council lawyer.

As residents we were being pro-active, fix the problem before it occurs as it most definitely will as it floods homes now and Maiden Gully is experiencing development all over the suburb.

The ratepayers of Bendigo will have to pay to fix the problem in the future if it is not addressed now. We do not have six years to wait.

READ MORE: Have your say: major concerns over traffic growth in CBD

Last week, Victoria's parliamentary inquiry into duck and quail hunting conducted its first public hearing.

The inquiry heard that duck hunting provides benefits to very few Victorians while imposing costs on many.

Ending native bird hunting would have a minimal impact on the economy and would provide substantial benefits to residents and businesses near hunting areas.

Time and again, surveys show that in the absence of duck hunting, hunters spend the same amounts of money on very similar activities.

This has been the experience in other states where duck hunting has been banned with no economic impact.

Claims that hunting is economically significant rely on biased survey results and economic modelling techniques that make no consideration of environmental costs.

The use of such flawed studies by Victoria's Game Management Authority shows that it has learned little from the 2017 review that found it was failing in its statutory obligations.

It is time to do what a majority of Victorian people, and presumably birds, want and end this cruel and economically damaging practice.

What is happening with the law (Bendigo Advertiser, May 27, 2023)?

A magistrate finds that a charge was proven but then dismisses it.

The charge was against a man who broke a law designed to keep people out of harm's way and to prevent protestors stopping a perfectly legal activity, which happened to be a timber harvesting operation in the Wombat State Forest.

Further protestors take note - be represented free of charge by Environmental Justice Australia and try to get the case held at the Kyneton Magistrate's Court.

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