12 February 2002 - Peninsula News - Page 15
Forum Community Forum
Concern over Ettalong Hotel development
Letters to the editor are welcomed and should be addressed to Peninsula News, PO Box 532, Woy Woy 2256. Contributions in Word format sent via e-mail to pennews@tpg.com.au or on disk to save us having to retype them. Forum contributors are reminded that full contact details, including phone number, must accompany submissions. Please include a date with all contributions. Name and suburb will be published. Anonymous contributions will not be included. Submissions may be published in an edited form.
Umina Beach Easter parade Umina Beach will host an Easter parade and carnival, presented by Peninsula Christian Life Centre on Easter Saturday, March 30. The parade will start at 11.30am in West St, Umina. Businesses are planning a "crazy market day" with in-store specials and other promotions. Floats will be provided by local businesses, dance studios, vintage car owners, churches,
the fire brigade and surf clubs. Gosford Mayor Cr Robert Bell will also be in the parade. A carnival will start at noon at the parkland entrance to East's Caravan Park, with stalls provided by local charities, churches, surf clubs and regular stall holders carrying arts and crafts. There will also be sausage sizzles, cakes, clowns, fun games, face painting, amusement rides and pony rides.
The non-profit event aims "to bring the community and community groups together for a fun day, helping local businesses and supporting local charities, and profiling the family". For further information, contact event co-ordinator Steven Knox on 4344 2509. Letter, January 30
ALP objects to lamb television advertising The Peninsula branch of the Australian Labor Party has called for the immediate withdrawal of an advertisement by Meat and Livestock Australia promoting lamb The branch is critical of "the prostitution of our National
Anthem, purely for commercial purposes". Following its last meeting, the branch has called on the Advertising Standards Board to withdraw the advertisement. The branch also called on Commonwealth and State Governments to legislate to
ensure that the National Anthem could not be used for commercial purposes. For further information about the branch, contact Ruth Hawkshaw on 4341 8828 Letter, January 23
Community centre should be for people of Woy Woy Now the new community centre at Woy Woy is open, it should be for the people of Woy Woy. Ettalong has the Senior Citizens, Umina a community centre.
Ettalong markets
We want something that people don't have to travel to. Older men and women like to go somewhere where there's something on through the week as well as on the weekends, as do especially singles, younger men that can't work, or the sick and disabled. It's a lonely life for a lot of us. Why not have a couple of rooms open so we can play pool, cards, darts and different games. The younger kids have play centres galore, and the younger boys have the fitness centre at Umina. So give the older people and others a chance. On another matter, we of the Peninsula want to know why we
have to pay more fares than Gosford and Sydney. From Sydney to Newcastle, it costs $3.30, yet from Woy Woy to Newcastle it costs the same. I have written to Jim Loyd, Chris Hartcher and even Bob Carr about it, and all you get back is that you'll hear from Carl Scully. Then when you hear from him, it's the same old thing. You're in the circle. Why do politicians pass it on to others? It seems like they couldn't care less about the people or the principle. Mrs M McMahon, Woy Woy
Flowers by Susan
I agree with Lynne Bockholt's concerns regarding the imminent four-storey redevelopment of the Ettalong Hotel. The pro-development lobby continue to use the fast ferry to Sydney as the carrot to entice Gosford Council to throw out the planning rule book. If the reality was accepted that the fast ferry project does not stack up financially, then some semblance of long term planning could return to Ettalong. Five years ago as chair of a local youth organisation on the Peninsula, I rang the fast ferry syndicate to voice support and ask if we could help in any way. They requested that we send them a cheque, as they had no money. Five years on and nothing has changed. After innumerable press releases printed without question in The Express and The Sun announcing the imminent commencement of the fast ferry service, the developers are shortly to go to the public cap in hand to ask for money to get the project to square one. With a commuter train fare to Sydney being $4.50, this service
cannot compete for commuter business. Without commuters, it will not fly. If the fast ferry was going to get up, it would have been up and running for the Sydney Olympics. Unless Council wants Ettalong to become Terrigal CBD Mark 2, it needs to start focusing on reality, not the fast buck fantasies of some. People who live outside the area see its uniqueness clearer than those who look at it every day. Lynne Bockholt is right when she notes Rene Rivkin saw a uniqueness to Ettalong that is about to be lost forever. Our grandchildren will not look kindly on the legacy of overdevelopm ent and all its associated problems, that we now propose they inherit. When the full story of the fast ferry saga is told, greed and naivety will emerge as the reasons so many people have been taken for a ride. It is a shame it's only been a fairy ride. Warren Cross, Wagstaffe
A few trees saved I was glad to read that Bryan Ellis and others have saved a few trees alongside Kahibah Creek. I would think that if an unrestricted flood-flow is required, why not build a concrete channel, as exists at Woy Woy and South Woy Woy?
This might save a few trees and to my mind the removal of large trees that hold the soil could result in half of Umina being swept to sea with the rest of the unrestricted flood-flow. Keith Whitford, Woy Woy
Bowen's photos