THE Herald's article stated that ongoing dredged sand nourishment for Stockton beach is the best maintenance option ('Sand the best option: council', Herald, 11/12). Three other options were considered. Our community group (Stockton Community Group Inc) is concerned that council's consultants have ranked both undoable and doable projects together and selected an undoable project as the preferred option.
The selected project is considered undoable if it relies on the current Port of Newcastle maintenance dredging program and its likely 10 year extension. This program is unable to place more than 20,000-30,000 cubic metres of clean sand per year.
Council has previously stated maintenance figures of 112,000 cubic metres per year are required. Port of Newcastle has told us directly that larger volumes and improved means of placement (as depicted in the article) are simply not possible now, or in the foreseeable future.
The unstated alternative option would be to source interstate or international dredgers each year.
Mobilising dredgers outside the state will incur significant mobilisation costs. Unfortunately selecting likely undoable projects means more reasonable alternatives (such as sand pumping and offshore structures) are prematurely deselected.
Council needs to confirm where the dredging resource is to be sought. Given no viable timeline for the initial mass nourishment component, compounding that with annual top-up projects with even less definition, is not meeting our communities' expectations for a timely solution.
At some point council needs to commit to a specified project with a funded timeline. We conclude this remains several years away.
Ian Taggart, Stockton
Vaccinating children
THE official line is that Australia has adopted the "best possible medical advice" to allow 5-11-year-olds to be vaccinated against COVID-19, and children are likely to get an "incentive" to be vaccinated. But some heavyweight opinion urges caution.
Dr Nick Coatsworth, Australia's former deputy chief medical officer and an infectious diseases specialist, said on [Channel 10 program] The Project recently that we don't really know whether vaccinating children as young as five is the best move forward.
He noted that children get very mild diseases and don't transmit as readily. He opposes vaccine mandates for young children and teenagers, as does the UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, and says the low risk of severe illness needs to be weighed against the risk of vaccination, especially with myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle).
Professor Robert Clancy, writing in Quadrant, notes that children under 12 "neither get severe disease nor significantly spread it".
NSW data for the period from June 16 to October 23 shows approximately 12,544 COVID-19 cases in children under 11 years old. None of these children were vaccinated and there were no deaths recorded in this age group.
Peter Dolan, Lambton
Don't get wrong idea about jabs
PEOPLE may get the wrong message from Peter Dolan's contribution ('Illness of whoever contracts it', Letters, 9/12), which said that there were more COVID-19 deaths in vaccinated people in Britain than in unvaccinated people.
There are also more deaths from people wearing seat belts in Australia than those not wearing seat belts.
This, of course, does not mean that seat belts are ineffective, it just means that the vast majority of people in car accidents are wearing seat belts. So too the majority of British people are vaccinated, especially the most vulnerable.
It is true COVID can kill a vaccinated person but it is much less likely. Vaccinated people that become infected are also likely to be infectious for a much shorter period and are also producing a lower infectious load.
Lloyd Davies, Stockton
Tobacco plan ignores history
JACINDA Ardern has described the planned prohibition of tobacco smoking in New Zealand as "groundbreaking" ('Ardern says NZ's smoke free plan 'captures the imagination'', Herald, 11/12).
It is truly sad when otherwise intelligent people show such complete ignorance of history.
One hundred years ago, the US was 'breaking ground' with an alcohol prohibition. It provided an effective business model for organised crime.
Eventually it was abandoned only to be replaced by a prohibition on intoxicating drugs, which has kept organised crime going ever since.
I have great admiration for Ms Ardern but I fear prohibition will be expensive and counter-productive, creating criminals rather than solving the numerous health issues caused by tobacco smoking.
Peter Ronne, Woodberry
Cut to GP Access After Hours
WHY is anyone surprised about the cuts to our GP Access After Hours services?
The whole point of the federal and state governments both classifying the second biggest city in NSW as regional is so they can pull stunts like this and pretend we're a little country town.
Remember Joyce telling us how happy we all were to go without our Pfizer shots when NSW Health redirected them to Sydney earlier this year?
Kath Heyne, Macquarie Hills
Powering low mortality rate
DR Ewald ('Why Vales Point exemption must be refused', Opinion, 9/12) claims that our coal fired power stations cause the deaths of between 31 and 68 people a year in NSW.
In NSW, 53,300 people die each year. While all deaths are tragic, 31 deaths out of 53,300 is small compared to the 6700 deaths caused by smoking and the 1400 deaths related to diabetes over the past 12 months.
The magnificent health workers in our many hospitals and clinics save countless lives each year. These hospitals and clinics must have 24/7 power supply or a lot more people would die.
Wind and solar provide only 16 per cent of our electricity (equivalent to one day per week) and are unable to provide 24/7 power in the foreseeable future.
Dr Ewald is a member of Doctors for the Environment Australia and this organisation would like all of our polluting power stations closed. But then our hospitals as well as businesses, factories and shops would not have enough electricity to operate.
Unfortunately, there is no such thing as clean, reliable energy and so if we want our hospitals to operate 24/7 they must have a reliable 24/7 power supply. Our ageing, polluting power stations need to be replaced with modern cleaner ones similar to 600 power stations currently under construction in Asia.
Robert Monteath, Newcastle
SHORT TAKES
BUS and train drivers, transport workers and school teachers are all striking. Where have these people been for the past two years? Thousands of Aussies lost their jobs because of the pandemic while they didn't lose a dollar. Now they want more money? How greedy can they get?
Don Fraser, Belmont North
TO me, it's not cricket to follow the rules and laws of another planet, when any god in love with this one, would be on it.
Dave Wilson, Bar Beach
IF we rearrange the letters in Omicron and Delta, you come up with 'media control'. Just saying.
Charles Farley, Adamstown Heights
SO, today we are almost back to normal re COVID restrictions. Just when we seem to be at our most vulnerable. Does that make sense?
Bill Slicer, Tighes Hill
THE good burghers of Geelong want a "Big Ute" stuck up on a pole as people enter their city. Maybe this would be an appropriate monument to stupidity of the federal government's decision to close down the Geelong car industry. We already have the "Big Sheep", the "Big Banana" and many other "Bigs" across this big brown land. We need a "Big" something as people enter Canberra. A "Big Galah" would be appropriate. But Kimba, SA, already has one of those. Perhaps a famous federal politician, suitably attired in a red suit, with horns, tail and pitchfork.
Geoff Black, Caves Beach
WHAT is the world coming to? We have become accustomed to fake news and disinformation, yet here we have a journalist - Julian Assange - who is just reporting the truth. It reminds me of that classic movie line: "you can't handle the truth".- and the US government obviously can't. People speak of freedom of speech, but apparently you can only get away with it if you're a person with political power. It's about time Australia stood up for one of their own and brought him home.
Neil Meyers, Warners Bay
COMMUNITY NOTICEBOARD
MY name is Tim. I am from the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England. I am tracing my family tree. In 1901 my great grandfather John Miles came to Newcastle NSW, he married Henrietta Elizabeth Kerr (nee Fisher). She was married before to William Kerr who died in 1901. Through the marriage of my great grandfather and Henrietta, they had two boys: John William Miles (born Oct 1902 - 1984). He married Doris May Tobin in 1933. They had five daughters. The second son was James Albert Miles (1904-2019). He married Dora Jessie Beck and had two sons: Jeffrey Allan Miles (he was supreme chief justice in ACT and died in 2019). The second son was Douglas Miles. I am trying to trace any living relatives. timsjobs1983@gmail.com
