Open letter to Bega MP
Re-elected Bega MP Andrew Constance has acknowledged "the community is responding to local issues and they expect their local member to fight hard" (MP wins fifth term, Bay Post/Moruya Examiner March 27).
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Andrew, you are aware one of those issues is the exclusion of a 50m pool in the Mackay Park Aquatic Arts and Leisure Centre. You have been aware of this since November 2017. You are also aware that some groups withdrew their support for the centre when they discovered a 50m pool was not in the plans.
A brief from 2017 to prove support for a 50m pool and a lack of support for a 25m pool was resent to you on Monday.
In your fifth term as the Member for Bega you have promised "to fight harder than when you were first elected". We still await comparative costings between a 10-lane, 25m pool and an eight-lane 50m pool that you advised Mayor Liz Innes to undertake at a meeting at Batemans Bay Community Centre in November 2017. The mayor, councillors and staff have been advised many times that "a 25m pool will be overflowing with people", that many users will be excluded. This concern falls on deaf ears.
The council is not listening. As the Bega MP, local government is your and your government's responsibility. We expect you to ensure that the council governs in the public interest.
The community supports a 50m pool in the centre. Please consider - your government sold a public asset that is partly funding this project and you are asking members of the community to accept being excluded from a facility they have helped pay for.
Save Batemans Bays 50m Pool
Our Towns Our Say
Sour on solar site
It's crazy to read that solar panel facilities (Bay Post/Moruya Examiner, March 29) would be permitted on good arable land that could well be needed for food production in the near future.
The protection of food production capacity is the principle behind the other restrictions put on developments on rural lands, whatever their zoning, but especially RU1.
Haven't we heard lots about those sorts of things in the debates about our shire's Rural Lands Strategy? If there was any sense of conviction, the mayor would be out there with a placard damning such a waste of good land.
While solar farms are not to be denied as a source of renewable energy, there's plenty of less valuable land out there not too far into the boondocks and still close enough for connection with the grid - that's where they should go.
Please register your thoughts with council on this important issue.
Jeff de Jager
Coila
To those poor Disaffected Moruya Residents (Bay Post/Moruya Examiner, March 27) whinging about Labor's loss, I take it you have proof of the "Liberals playing dirty"?
With regard to those posters, I saw them and they smacked of incompetence - stuck on wooden stakes that could easily have blown over in the wind.
According to you "they were mounted more sensitively and less destructively on wooden stakes" as opposed to the Liberal posters which were screwed or nailed high on large roadside trees.
What about the shambolic poster regarding the promised funds for the hospital?
Who drew up this poster?
I'm surprised Ms Atkinson allowed them to be displayed.
When I saw them, I thought this was exactly why Labor should not be elected - if they're not prepared to put in the extra time to push their agenda, why elect them?
I could not see any Liberal wanting to get rid of such an eyesore, as it only displayed Labor incompetence.
Your observation regarding the Liberal posters again highlights the importance that Bega MP Andrew Constance and his supporters placed on doing the job properly and getting his message across.
Alex Wallensky
Broulee
Abandoned car
Approximately two months ago, I noticed a red Toyota Yaris in perfect condition on the side of the highway just north of the Tuross turnoff.
I thought the police would deal with it, but after a month nothing seemed to be happening.
I tried to call Moruya or Bodalla police, only to be redirected to a central number somewhere in Australia. Eventually I was able to talk to an operator and was told that if it had not already been reported, the police would attend. The next day a small piece of police tape was tied around the mirror. All good, I thought.
A couple of days later, after a windy night the tape was gone. I assumed however it was in the system and would be dealt with soon. Not so.
At least three weeks after my call, the car had been vandalised and had a sign stating it had been reported. I guess now it's up to insurance companies to pay for it. No wonder premiums are high. The system really works.