We were supposed to be talking about a much more local planning issue, getting the 100 years old next year Errington Reserve off the list of candidate cites for a new civic precinct that we optimists hope might help us all move on from our checkered municipal history, but could not avoid conversation spilling over onto the state government's wider plans for Melbourne's westward growth, the month of public comment on which officially closes tomorrow.

I am trying to confine my local involvements to preserving and protecting the heritage of my mother's work in the St Albans History Society, where saving Errington Reserve from misappropriation by a previous council was her proudest achievement, as it was achieved by her positive tactic of finding the big fast "food" company a better location to ensnare passing traffic.

Hopefully the current process will be able to identify a similarly better site for the new civic precinct.