Letters with the Committee for #Ballarat in their sites - an organisation whose actions contradict their words

I have to-day posted this letter on my Facebook site ~~~ Miss Eagle

Before and after pix on the Western Hwy Duplication

The people are Isobel Mackenzie (aged 91 years)

and

Helen Lewers 

who tied themselves to a redgum in protest.

Trees scheduled for destruction are draped with silver collars

by the roadworks people.

Brigid O'Carroll Walsh

4 mins · 

Helen Lewers of WHAM has had a marvellous letter published in The Courier here in ‪#‎Ballarat‬ to-day. http://www.thecourier.com.au/…/committee-all-for-growth-a…/…

Clearly, the Committee for Ballarat doesn't give a fig about what is actually happening out on the Western Highway duplication as it moves steadily from‪#‎Beauffort‬ to ‪#‎Stawell‬.

On the Committee's website they say this of themselves:

Committee for Ballarat tackles the social, economic and environmental issues of our time and envisions innovative ways to address them. We employ intellectual rigour and strategic thinking to solve the problems we face now and into the future. We connect and engage with stakeholders, involve and inform the community and seek expert advice. And we use our influence and connections to guide and progress key projects and programs of that are of benefit to our region.

I wonder where the 'intellectual rigour' was in regard to the environmental issue of the destruction of ancient vegetation and current animal habitats on the duplication of the Western HIghway. I wonder how many of the Committee's board members live in areas of #Ballarat covered by a heritage overlay or in areas where historic oaks and elms are covered by heritage laws. If this is the case, I'll bet they would kick up a fuss if this urban heritage was to be damaged and/or destroyed. No amount of argument about progress or profit would keep them quiet. But of course, they live nowhere near where the Western Highway duplication damage is being done. The site of the destruction is out of sight and out of mind to them. It is not rigorously in their sight.

... and, dear Committee for Ballarat, if you think you are dealing with just another "mob of Greenies", I would draw your attention to the number of rural landholders involved in protesting the Western Highway destruction; the number of people involved in rural businesses; the number of people with tertiary education. In fact, the demographic of WHAM is, in the main, of the sort that would line up for a committee such as yours ... but only if it has the environmental rigour your organisation falsely professes to possess. You, dear Committee, are so short-sighted you can't see the development of a treeless desert in your neighbourhood

Miss Eagle and Isabel Mackenzie 

on their way from #Ballarat to #Ararat for a WHAM meeting

Read here to find out about the destructive roadworks

and how Isabel and Helen tied themselves to trees in protest.