Great place to raise children
TO the people of Westbury, I grew up in Geilston Bay on Hobart’s Eastern Shore, my mother still lives there. We moved in when there were dirt roads and the nearest bus stop was in Lindisfarne. As the suburb grew we acquired shops including a butcher and a fish and chip shop which are still there today, we had a golf course and football oval, tennis club and later a boat club for the growing number of residents. The golf course moved to Barilla Bay and the land was further developed for housing and a school. In the late 1950s we gained a new neighbour in the suburb of Risdon Vale and now these two suburbs have grown and become connected.
More houses were built and continue to be, real estate values are high and Risdon Vale is a favourite for first home buyers. We have a four-lane highway connecting us to the Tasman and Bowen bridges as well as to the Tasman Highway, airport and East Coast. I had an idyllic childhood with the River Derwent and bushland providing us with plenty to do. It makes for a great place to live and bring up children, Oh, I forgot to mention Risdon Prison is in the middle of all this, about 2½km from my mother’s house. Mark Pearce Howrah
Their home, after all
MINISTER Elise Archer says she is committed to consulting on the prison site. Other MPs say the same. Ministers, you know what is happening right now is not consulting. It is appeasing while not actually respecting the community’s view’. It will only become consulting when you allow Tasmanian communities a say in deciding what happens in their own home town. That’s only fair: they live there, after all. Right now you’re losing votes. Just support the community and move the site away from our precious tourist towns. Mike Radburn Leslie Vale
Budget blowout
THE community consultation is costing upwards of $100,000. The budget for the prison itself is $270 million. How much will it blow out to? The community consultation is a joke. It’s a fact-finding exercise for the State Government application for rezoning to allow the prison to be built in Westbury. Is this political suicide? The State Government doesn’t care about the people of Westbury, they only want to find a convenient place for a prison. They think they won’t lose many votes. What is the real cost in dollars and social impact? Is Westbury collateral damage? Liz Howard Westbury
Nothing like Westbury
THE article in the Mercury’s TasWeekend magazine about the maximum security prison proposed within the speed limit area of the heritage-rich Westbury Village was balanced, well-researched, excellent journalism that presented both sides of this dispute. A couple of points about prisons compared to the site — Lara, a Victorian town with a population of 17,550, hosts the “notorious Barwon Prison” and Marngoneet Prison. The prison is 6km away. Junee NSW (population 4762) hosts a privately owned medium to minimumsecurity prison with a capacity of 790. Brewarrina (1143 people) hosts a minimum security centre for training Aboriginal offenders 70km south of the village. Ravenhall in Melbourne (population 1157) has a prison population of 1300, medium security, privately run. Other prisons the minister has raised are Lithgow (population 22,000) and Cessnock (59,000).
Compare this to the village of Westbury, population 2000. Proposed maximum security, 2km from village centre. Let’s compare apples with apples. A prison of this size and security level belongs in a major town or city to allow prison visitors easy, anonymous access to their relatives, with access to courts and medical and educational institutions. Not in a heritage rich, rural village with small businesses that depend on tourism. Peter Wileman Westbury
Hospital-jail fix
READER Scott White suggests a hospital could be built in the Sorell municipality (Letters, October 30). Why not have a facility for a new hospital and the new jail. It would be a win, win. Given the traffic congestion, ambulance ramping would be a thing of the past, because ambulances wouldn’t be able to get there to ramp, and offenders would have a few hours extra freedom, albeit in the back of a prison van, and Westbury would be allowed to stay Westbury. Yay, problems solved. John Hunt Warrane