It should be seen by the residents of the area as another industry to support future population and business growth. In the longer term, it would be expected that at least 10 per cent of the permanent prison workforce would be Westbury residents.

The multiplier effect means that each worker has a larger positive economic impact on the area than just the individual.

More jobs are created in the service area to supply the requirements of an increased population.

Fear of the unknown has led to talk of a possible drop in real estate values. The facts suggest otherwise, as other prisons in similar locations in other states show.

I've visited Junee and Woodford, which both have a prison in the immediate vicinity, and attended the annual Woodford Folk Festival which attracts tens of thousands of visitors to the town every New Year.

There doesn't seem to be any negative impact on either community or their visitors.

I have two acquaintances who have experienced prison life, one who I work with often. Both made mistakes, were tried and convicted, served their time and now are making a positive contribution to their communities. I've lived in a community in another state that benefits still from work release programs where low-risk detainees close to parole are allowed out in groups to work on community benefit projects.

MY husband was born in Westbury, his parents lived and passed away here.

How dare anyone decide to dump a prison here without asking Westbury residents about our vision. I have lived here for 30 years or more. I love this beautiful village and will do whatever it takes to protect it.

I WONDER if I wore a t-shirt which read "I've been to Risdon too" how many people would assume I had been an inmate of Risdon prison. Now fast forward a few years. "I've been to Westbury too"

SUSTAINABILITY development creeps closer to home. When you see maps of Australia been sold out to overseas on television and many items are on the supermarket shelves made overseas.

Yet even at home in Devonport, the size of potatoes sold at high prices around Devonport the size have decreased to half and even smaller than tomatoes.

It is either sold off to the chip factory or all the big ones sold overseas.

It is disgraceful supermarkets sell potatoes the size of golf balls to consumers.

Even in 10kg bags you only get a few bigger potatoes and most for the tip.

THERE has been much discussion about solving the traffic jams in Invermay.

I'd say it's almost reached the point where lights need to be installed within the car park near Bunnings.

After leaving the Officeworks end, it can be quite difficult at certain times to merge into the existing traffic.

IT BOGGLES the mind that deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack can state in an interview that climate change is a rumour spread by "inner-city leftists and raving lunatics".

And this "person" (what I'd like to say is unprintable) is actually, God help us, our deputy prime minister.

Just tell that to the people who've lost everything in bushfires and our struggling farmers.

Mick Brewster is quoted in the article (The Sunday Examiner, November 10) as saying that the option of supplying treated water to the town was tabled by Ben Lomond Water/TasWater in 2013, "but it was rejected by a majority of the residents of Pioneer".

From what I can recall, the option of a treated (potable) water supply was very quickly taken off the table by BLW as being "too expensive".

The installation of rainwater tanks was available by signing of the first of two contracts sent out by TasWater. The retention of the existing mains supply involved the signing of a second contract, which waived all legal rights as regarded TasWater.

The result was the loss of our mains water connection and being left with rainwater tanks only.

Residents of other towns faced with contaminated water supplies were never required to sign contracts for the replacement of their mains water supply.

Pioneer township also had a water allocation from the Frome Dam, until 2048. There was no "extensive consultation" about the abrupt severance of this allocation, and no notification to Pioneer residents that this had occurred.

These long-standing issues and many other questions require the formality of a Public Inquiry convened by the State Parliament.

Pioneer citizens deserve the same access to a potable water supply as people located across the rest of Tasmania.

The inequity inherent in a two-tier system of access to water needs to be addressed at the highest level and without any further delays.