Develop alternative site
THREE days before Christmas, Lake Macquarie City Council announced in a newspaper advertisement that a number of allotments of public land in the Toronto township will be reclassified from ‘Community Classification’ to ‘Operational Classification’ for commercial development or sale.
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The parcels of land are within the town centre and add to council’s already substantial commercial land holdings in Toronto.
This situation provides additional opportunities for council to develop some of its other suitable land holdings in Toronto instead of destroying significant public foreshore land near Bath Street.
Toronto Foreshore Protection Group, with widespread community support, has been opposed to council’s plans to construct a four- to six-storey commercial building on the foreshore near Bath Street, on public land.
We are not against development, but it needs to be in the right place, benefit the community, and comply with planning guidelines. With this in mind we have readily identified two possible sites in Toronto, owned by council, that would be more suitable for development.
The group has identified a vacant block at the corner of Pemell and Brighton streets, which would provide approximately 2,968 square metres. This land also adjoins the old community hall facing The Boulevarde, which was just reclassified prior to Christmas and, if included, would provide a very large parcel with three street frontages, close to the lake and cafes.
The other very large elevated and cleared site, with magnificent lake views, is between the Anglican Church and the Aldi car park in Brighton Avenue.
We are calling upon council to review its flawed development proposal and instead use some of its very suitable existing town sites to undertake the planned development.
- Jeff Jansson, Toronto Foreshore Protection Group
You can’t test everything
WITH 10,000 people at a music festival, what facility could authorities in all reality provide to accurately test pills at the gate? What happens then if the okay is given to a particular pill and an attendee swallows three pills instead of one and dies?
I have been a registered pharmacist since 1965, have listened to many angles on illegal drugs and suggest that the only solution is confiscation and prosecution of the perpetrators. Wake up Australia, how about some common sense?
- Richard Devon, Fishing Point
Praise for trainer
FITNESS centres generally take one’s money and purport to change your life. They exist to make money, like any business. Occasionally a fitness centre delivers what is required, and Transform Fitness at Rathmines does precisely that. The owner Amber Harrison walks the walk and talks the talk. She tailors an affordable and flexible package and then precedes to deliver excellence in customer service, encouragement and results. For a middle aged woman like me, Amber has transformed my life. I am on my way to better health, greater strength and resilience, all for 30 minutes, five days per week. Amber’s gentle manner and extensive knowledge is a gift, and one we all need.
- Marilynne Pross-Vale, Balmoral
Answers requested
CAN someone please tell me why the 7000 affected residences of Trinity Point would want or need a helipad? Or why the residents of Toronto need a six-storey residential/tourism building on the foreshore? Or why we need entire houses of short-term holiday rentals accommodating more than 14 people next door to our residential homes while we are trying to sleep and get on with our daily lives? And when, Lake Macquarie City Council, are you going to put your residents first, and before tourism? Finally, maybe all tourists to Lake Macquarie should first pass the new garbage test.
- Nicky Burgess, Wangi Wangi
