Copyright theage
Celebrate healthcare professionalsRe "Save babies from influencers", 29/10. In the same week that a young woman lost her life from complications arising when giving birth without medical assistance, my daughter’s life was saved by the highly professional and sophisticated emergency medical support available in our lucky country.She gave birth to a healthy child late in the evening at the Women’s Hospital in Melbourne. She suffered catastrophic and uncontrollable post-partum bleeding losing many litres of blood. Emergency surgery was performed to stem the bleeding in the very early hours of the morning. Nonetheless there were grave concerns that she would not survive to the morning.On transfer to the Intensive Care Unit at Royal Melbourne Hospital she was in a medically induced coma with breathing support. The on-duty registrar called in the senior consultant of the ICU to help save her.After multiple units of blood transfused and the one-one sophisticated ICU nursing support she was awake and breathing on her own by mid next morning. Following the best part of five days in ICU she was transferred along with the healthy baby back to the maternity unit at the Women’s Hospital. Within seven days my daughter and grand-child returned home well on the way to recovery.Celebrate our health care professionals: Beware of the charlatans, snake oil merchants and influence peddlers. The compassionate, selfless and professional support provided to my daughter saved her life.Name and address withheld Upside down planningWe ask our planning system to do lots of things. It must allow enough homes to be built to house our population, work hand-in-glove with our huge investment in transport infrastructure, and locate our population near jobs and services. Way down the bottom of this list are happy neighbours.Except that our planning system is upside-down, placing the concerns of neighbours at the very top of the pyramid. Limiting neighbours’ third party appeal rights (“Neighbours lose appeal rights in new laws to slash planning approval times” 28/10) will invert Victoria’s planning system to a logical hierarchy so that it can deliver on its primary purpose, allowing everyone to have somewhere to live.Dominic Grounds, Golden Point Fast track to poor designRe Chip Le Grand’s opinion piece "Neighbours should not have the right to block your build", 30/10. I agree there is the need for more housing and changes to the planning system are warranted.Having listened to experienced planners, many have concerns with the changes the premier has recently announced. These changes were actually canvassed earlier in the year with experts concerned the changes will allow for greater site coverage and reduced street setbacks, the relaxation of standards around overlooking, overshadowing and tree coverage, and councils are no longer able to consider neighbourhood character when assessing a permit application.Furthermore, the Planning Institute of Australia in response to the Parliamentary Select Committee Inquiry report into recent amendments to the Victoria Planning Provisions stated in May that "the most likely scenario is that the changes will fast track poorly designed low- to mid-rise housing that will emerge in an ad hoc way across the residential zones of Victoria".Research from Homelessness Australia demonstrates the housing crisis is driving increased homelessness. We need to do more to assist those most at risk, however these changes will not deliver housing affordability.Yvonne Bowyer, Surrey Hills More grey canyonsRe "Neighbours should not have the right to block your build", 30/10. Since the 1970s, Victoria has a commendable history of social activism from spirited community-minded people not prepared to just rollover when a state government proposes to trash an entire suburb for a freeway or a private corporation planning to dump toxic waste on a western suburb.The current planning legislation commits to a fair process, aims to secure a safe, pleasant and efficient place to live, protect heritage and ecological processes.Given truckloads of evidence that tells us being able to see trees from our bedroom and loungeroom is much better for our mental health and physical well-being than being overlooked by the new monstrosity built to boundary next door, or being able to hear next door’s stereo or washing machine, many Victorians have greatly benefited from the planning legislation in place now.Yes, provided plans for a new house or subdivision already comply with the recommended template for the site, approval should be swift. It’s just that initial plans rarely offer that compliance. Even a single dwelling proposal rarely respects a neighbour’s right to privacy or preservation of established trees.The current system isn’t perfect but the premier’s proposal will certainly trash what’s left of liveability and yet, still not deliver any improvement in supply of affordable housing, at all. We know that because it was the density-for-access and affordability trade-off in the inner suburbs that was promised back in the late 1990s and clearly hasn’t delivered. All Melbourne got was grey canyons, noise and congestion.Bernadette George, Mildura
