Letters to the editor

I only got one name - Aaron - but I know others stopped to help also.

We are so thankful there is such a caring community at the Bay to help mum at the time she needed it the most.

She has broken her hip, but is now recovering post surgery.

Thank you so much Batemans Bay community.

As fidget spinners sink further to the bottom of the toy box, parents and Santa Claus are being called on to deliver more traditional wheel-driven devices this Christmas – bicycles.  

With physical inactivity among young Australians also at a low point, it’s the perfect time to get back into bike riding.

Instead of giving restless children something they can fiddle with on the couch for five minutes, give them something where the memories and health benefits will last forever.

“We all still remember when we were given our first bike. The joy of receiving something that can set you free to go out and explore the world will make every child excited.

They will be so eager they’ll want to go outside and ride all morning, which will also get them out of the house for a moment while you prepare for the rellies to come over.

Bicycle Network has a wish of their own for Christmas that would also help more children and families get riding – a change of law to allow people of all ages to ride on the footpath anywhere in Australia.

Currently in NSW it is illegal to ride on the footpath once you reach the age of 12, forcing students and inexperienced riders on to the road.

After Christmas and new year many people decide they want to get back into the habit of bike riding, but find the road intimidating and often give up. If footpath riding was allowed more people would ride to work or school and get their daily exercise.

Anomalies in the law also make it difficult for families to ride together. While adults can accompany a child under 12, there is no such exception for a sibling older than 12.

We need to pull down these barriers and make it easier for people to ride bikes and live healthy, active lives.

We can only rejoice in the NSW Cabinet's decision, in which our Bega MP and Transport Minister Andrew Constance was presumably contentedly complicit, to spend $2 billion plus on demolishing/rebuilding various under-utilised Sydney stadiums.  A pittance - but it might have otherwise been squandered on adequate staffing in regional hospitals, maintaining school buildings, ensuring we have safe roads, public housing, ensuring our National Parks and adjacent farms are not overrun by weeds and vermin, investing in measures to take account of sea level rise on near-sea-level bridges, roads, sewage and other regional infrastructure – perhaps restoring some of the decent jobs ripped out as National Parks, State Forestry, Local Land Services, Department of Lands have been massively culled.  All manner of fripperies of no interest to voters.

It is a most wise decision in the lead up to a state election. It is a  decision whose benefits will endure down the ages - after all the Olympic Stadium is archaic - almost 20 years old, almost as as decrepit as the Roman Colosseum.