The Mount Panorama Second Circuit Action Group has repeatedly stated that council has one chance to get the design right with this legacy infrastructure proposal, so selecting an internationally accomplished track design team in the first instance must be “front and centre” of the decision making process.

Council is not in a position to take the risk on an inexperienced track design consultant “cutting their teeth” at our expense. Council, too, would be all too aware that many eyes from throughout motorsport within Australia are also watching this proposal closely, placing more pressure on the decision makers to get it right. 

Normally I would support Australian entities in the process, however, if the two international submissions have the “runs on the board” in design and experience, I think they’ll be hard to beat.

I WAS amused that our home telephone number was selected to participate in a survey being conducted on behalf of council regarding our use of the recently introduced green bin for recycling. 

Readers will recall my strident opposition to the introduction of the green bin as I believed – and still do – that it should have been issued and charged on a demand basis only. However, I will be interested to see the results of the survey as I only recently asked the council general manager what percentage of ratepayers were using the green bin.

Unsurprisingly, council does not record this data but my research around my local area indicated roughly 50 per cent of residents used and love their green bin, meaning council is doing very nicely out of the additional revenue [estimated to be around $1.8 million] being collected on a service not wholly used.

IT’S going to be a long local government election campaign as candidates are coming forward already with the old “look at me, look at me” mantra.

May I suggest that July 1 be set as the beginning of the election period to spare us from a nauseating process that honestly very people have any interest in.

READERS who complained bitterly about how often the previous mayor was in the paper are now complaining that the new mayor is just as bad.

I’ve said it before, being elected to local government is a thankless job, but somewhere there must be a balance in the number of appearances on or in local media.

COUNCIL receiving five expressions of interest to design the second circuit. The pressure is on council to select the best submission as there is lot riding on the success of this proposal.

LOCAL government candidates already boring ratepayers with spiels about how good they are. I suggest July 1 be set as the start of the campaign with a ban on all propaganda until then.