Thank goodness Lake Macquarie council is considering options for saving the volunteer-run aquatic centre at Valentine.
It is a much-needed facility for the community on the eastern side of Lake Macquarie; needed by those who need the hydrotherapy pool for medical needs, needed by those who use the facility for exercise and training purposes.
This facility has been funded, staffed, maintained and run by volunteers and a loyal and hard-working committee, at no cost to the ratepayers. Those who have used the facility are those who have paid.
To those councillors who voted against this proposal, please do not stand in the way for this facility to continue to serve those who need it, who have used it for decades and for all those who need it in the future.
To those naysayers who voted against the proposal I say, the "regulars" who benefited from the facility, for health and fitness, who have had to seek other aquatic facilities, will gladly and gratefully return to a local facility for obvious reasons of convenience, travel and costs.
As for the other argument put forward by the naysayers that this facility will have to be paid for by many who will not use it; this seems to me, a pretty hollow argument.
Do these naysayers really expect to be taken seriously? Do not the entire ratepaying population pay, in part, for each and every facility provided by the council? Do we think it unfair that the Charlestown skateboard facility is not used by the entire community? There was no such thought or objection to the council funds to upgrade and maintenance the newly refurbished Toronto Swim Centre.
The Valentine pools have served the local and wider community for health, training and recreational needs for decades; maintained and staffed by volunteers, with all the labour and equipment costs met by community volunteer stalwarts. Our community needs this facility. Please retain Valentine pools.
Robin Gordon OAM, Belmont
Protect the valley
BYLONG Valley Protection Alliance President Phil Kennedy is right. The proposed coal mine in the Bylong Valley must not proceed. ("Bylong in the balance", Herald, 28/8)
Firstly, in order to achieve the Paris target, the world's electricity should be generated by renewables, not coal.
Secondly, the massive amount of water needed to wash the coal would place the local underground water supply at risk, especially given the streams are only four to six metres below the surface and drawdown would be up to nine metres. We must be sensible and safeguard our prime agricultural land.
Ray Peck, Hawthorn
Time to talk tunnels
WHEN I came to Newcastle in 1980 I soon discovered that the Inner City of Newcastle Western Bypass was a project long overdue and in continual discussions.
The road known also as Highway 123 was approved to be planned and constructed as soon as practical in 1935; here we are 85 years later with a government balking at some exit ramps.
The bypass was to follow the Marshall Street alignment and this should be a tunnel under the hillside from the valley near McCaffrey Drive to the valley where the Sydney-Newcastle railway line passes under the roadway. The claim that undermining of this area would prevent the work being done was never established and was never seriously considered.
The main entry to the John Hunter Hospital was to be from this new road - the current entry was not the main entry proposal, according to Premier Neville Wran when with a golden shovel he turned a sod on the construction site for this hospital.
I have asked visiting politicians, "Is this road called Highway 123 because it will take 123 years to build, since every time there is a promise to construct a bit more the excuses are rolled out as to why we cannot do it just yet?"
The best option is a tunnel. The current option will not deal with the peak traffic at McCaffrey Drive or at Main Road, Cardiff Heights. Apart from this are the school speed restrictions in front of the school on this road. All the tunnelling concerns can be overcome with a set of experts fit for purpose. I am reminded of the words often said by a former Israeli Prime Minister when it was reported that experts claimed that the projects were not possible; his response was "Get a new set of experts".
Milton Caine, Birmingham Gardens
Water deal anger
YOUR headline 'Government paid double for buyback' (Herald, 28/8) caught my attention.
As I read on, my anger rose. Barnaby Joyce has sealed a deal in which water was secured in a buyback and the taxpayer paid twice the amount determined by an independent valuer.
It appears the company paid was owned by Angus Taylor. The same Angus Taylor who was accused of allegedly and illegally clearing swathes of native grasslands. The same Angus Taylor who was accused of allegedly falsifying a public document to tarnish the good name of Clover Moore.
He says he is no longer associated with the company. Well he's had two years to disassociate from his company while the LNP kept the deal secret.
Rod Campbell is quoted as saying "taxpayers have been ripped off".
Imagine the howls of protest and confected indignation if Labor were responsible for this rip-off. This requires a Senate inquiry at the least and, if necessary, federal police involvement. This so-called "deal" stinks.
John Lawton, Belmont
Hunter should go it alone
IN regards to the disgusting comments made by the Liberal Premier regarding the manufacturing of trains in NSW, here's an idea. How about we investigate our options to cut off all our state government taxes and coal royalties that are paid to her and her colleagues, and use the money to pay for our own services up here without having to put up with her head in the sand attitude she has for the Hunter Region?
Philip Carter, Metford
Lockdowns saving lives
HOWARD Hutchins, in your letter to the editor ('State has suffered enough', Herald, 29/8) you ask Daniel Andrews and Australia to remove COVID lockdowns for businesses.
Not once in your letter have you mentioned the massive health impacts, including deaths, that will occur if you had your way.
So my question to you is - why are the life and death COVID issues not part of your conversation? Are you saying people's lives are to be secondary concerns to business success? And are you prepared to be accountable for the lives that would be lost if you had your way?
Glen Wilson, Cardiff
SHARE YOUR OPINION
Email letters@theherald.com.au or send a text message to 0427 154 176 (include name and suburb). Letters should be fewer than 200 words. Short Takes should be fewer than 50 words. Correspondence may be edited and reproduced in any form.
SHORT TAKES
WAY to go Transport NSW - build the Newcastle Inner City Bypass for now, not the future just like you did with the dual bridges on Kooragang and you will have your big blowout in cost you seem to aim for. After all it's only taxpayers' money. Then again why don't you build it overseas and ship it over in modules?
Ken Stead, Lambton
PETER Dolan in his critique of my letter regarding vaccines states that I said "all vaccines" use the same basic process. This is incorrect. My letter stated that "many vaccines" use this process. Criticism is welcome, but misquoting the facts is not.
Sandy Buchanan, Largs
DAN Kirkpatrick, my experience with smoking illnesses will never change my opinion. Smoking is an idiotic activity. Many animal products are taxed; leather, soaps, fertiliser, all sorts. Tax red meat if you wish, I don't think either side of politics is that stupid. Why is a bug's life less important than a pigs'? I'm sure most normal people would rather stand next to a bloke eating a sausage sandwich than a bloke smoking a cigarette. If you're a smoker, you have my pity.
Steve Barnett, Fingal Bay
AHH Dan Kirkpatrick, you should go into stand-up comedy old son. In my humble opinion I believe cigarettes, or cancer sticks as I call them, should be totally banned as they serve absolutely zero purpose.
Matt Ophir, Charlestown
DAN Kirkpatrick (Short Takes, 29/8) people only eat meat to help you vegans out because the animals eat your food.
Ken Stead, Lambton
I READ with interest the explainer on the morality of refusing a COVID-19 vaccination stating that only objectors on the strongest of conscientious grounds would be prepared to pay a financial penalty. I believe we are paying the largest financial penalty in history for a virus that has a high recovery rate, may I add, without a vaccine.
Brad Hill, Singleton
REGARDING the story about mobile phone coverage in Mount Hutton. When I started reading the article I said "yep another Optus customer", but then read a bit further and saw it was Telstra. Well, Optus is pretty woeful too. I'm in Gateshead and can't even get 3G coverage sometimes. Come home from shopping at Lake Macquarie Fair and my wife wants to know why I didn't answer the phone. I go to Charlestown Square lower level and get 4G. I think it's time Telstra and Optus got their act into gear.
Wayne Ridley, Gateshead
ALL I can say about the off-shore manufacture of transport machinery is NSW is not very good at producing politicians with insight.
Ray Chenery, Maryland
STEVE Barnett adores horses (Subzero) yet slices, dices and minces cows, pigs and chickens for a living? I think it's called speciesism Steve (or hypocrisy).
