Bellarine Times OG: April 3, 2014

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Bellarine Times

Thursday 3 April 2014

VOL 7. No 14

www.bellarinetimes.com.au

FREE WEEKLY

OCEAN GROVE & BARWON HEADS EDITION

INSIDE TODAY

YOUR COMPLETE REAL ESTATE GUIDE Barwon Heads and Ocean Grove players compete during one of last year’s battles of the bridge. The BFL season kicks off this Saturday. See page 111. Photo: PETER MARSHALL

Community to protest against the sale of Ann Nichol House

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BY REBECCA LAUNER HUNDREDS of concerned residents and a handful of community leaders will unite in Portarlington this Saturday to protest against the sale of Ann Nichol House. The Health Workers Union has organised a community protest against the Bellarine Community Health (BCH) board’s decision to sell the area’s last publicly owned residential aged care facility. Health Workers Union secretary Diana Asmar said the board’s decision would affect the standard of elderly care on the Bellarine and would force families and patients into the private aged care sector against their wishes. Member for Bellarine Lisa Neville, Member for Geelong Ian Trezise, City of Greater Geelong Councillor Lindsay Ellis and

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honorary secretary for the house project Ann Nichol have confirmed their attendance. Ms Nichol said the only chance to turn this “rapidly deteriorating” situation around would be for Minister for Ageing David Davis to withhold approval for the transfer to a private, for-profit provider of the Crown land upon which Ann Nichol House was built. “We are calling upon Minister Davis to require BCH to establish a transparent process that includes consultation with its membership and engagement with the community that raised the funds to build and establish Ann Nichol House in 1996,” Ms Nichol said. “We are calling for a process, that involves key stakeholders, including community, that ensures clear evidence that Ann Nichol

House is financially unviable, a range of creative models have been explored to establish viability (including privatisation), that any privatisation of Ann Nichol House enshrines guarantees regarding access for local communities on the northern Bellarine Peninsula, and that the significant community funding and effort that assisted in the establishment and maintenance of Ann Nichol House be appropriately recognised.” The community raised $700,000 towards the $2 million project which opened in 1996. Ms Nichol said she believed it was possible for BCH to establish a viable model for the future operation of Ann Nichol House in a way where everyone could move forward together.

Barwon Heads Community Bank® Branch phone 0401 492 910 Drysdale Community Bank® Branch - phone 5253 3192 Ocean Grove Branch - phone 5255 4866 Portarlington Community Bank® Branch - phone 5259 3266 Queenscliff Branch - phone 5258 4800 and find out more about choosing the home loan that’s right for you.

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