Cleveland car parking is an issue
Thank you for the article about the parking chaos in Cleveland. I have emailed the council and received no response and given feedback (protesting about the idea) when the closure of the car park was proposed. Local businesses are losing customers, but they are also losing employee productivity as we go and play musical car parks a couple of times a day. As the RCC allocated car parks sit mostly empty, other RCC staff take up "general" car parks. Why can't RCC build a multi-level car park behind their building for their staff and open up some of the other RCC car parks (e.g. Kyling Lane) and the 12-hour car parks on the street for employees of other businesses? This would then free up the 3-hour spots for shoppers and appointments again. Amanda Kennewell, Thornlands
Executive order insanity
Einstein is reputed to have said that "a definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again (the same way) and expecting a different outcome".
In my 30 years in the Redland shire, Redland City, Redland Coast and goodness knows how many logos from the once plentiful Koala to the sailing boats in the face of a Koala to, who really cares (except for the agencies that designed them).
I've also seen three incarnations of industry encouraging offshoots of the council. So now we're creating an expensive division to do what its predecessors didn't really succeed at. We're still a largely dormitory suburb. Access, which isn't the council's domain, is a critical issue. i.e. Highways. Train services and buses. The latter 2 take between 45 minutes to 1.5 hours for as the crow flies is 20 k do the maths.
Tourism well I remember busloads of tourists coming here to enjoy our then Australian environment with plentiful varieties of birds and wildlife .. including the Koalas most of which are now endangered or gone. Most of them are in Under facility( ed) bush refuges or on the islands. The mistake then was not capitalizing on these busloads of tourists.
Let's get real. The mainland beaches aren't that great. There was a reason Cleveland didn't win the port status originally...mud. So one can ask what has changed in 30 years? The climate and the environment. Read droughts, Fires and floods.
Isn't it about time the council focus on what we are, and improve the conditions for the residents, including the islands and spend the money on what we can achieve that makes us the safest and, therefore, the best place to live? More residents, more cash for service businesses and higher house prices, et al. instead of chasing the unlikely and adding to the clogging of highways with trucks and pollution. Rod Murray, Redland Bay
Ironic driver safety menace
I read Jordan Crick's article from Thursday, February 24, about poor driver behaviour plaguing Redlands streets and want to say I concur. A lot of the issue boils down to a lack of infrastructure to support more drivers, cyclists and pedestrians.
To the middle-aged turkey who was driving the white Toyota Camry sedan along Main Road, Wellington Point on Wednesday, March 2 around 6:15pm: I was turning out of O'Connell Parade when you (rather unsafely) held up traffic to obnoxiously tell me I was riding on the wrong side of the road. Actually, I was idling in the shoulder lane and was not being a menace to oncoming traffic. I was waiting for you to pass by so that I could safely cross over to the other side. The irony of the situation is you were haphazardly stopping traffic so you could tell me I was doing the wrong thing when you could have kept your irrelevant thoughts to yourself and kept driving. The issue would have resolved itself. Twit.
Redlands City is exploding in population as we know. More houses are being built. As a result, more people flock to the area, which means more motorists, cyclists and pedestrians in the locality. So let's all of us exercise a little grace and patience on our roads and thoroughfares. Ash Kuss, Wellington Point
Where is the support?
I sat in a Council run meeting about the Birkdale lands on Thursday night and one of the staff said the White water canoeing facility is a "given". The council had an open day on the site and ran a survey on what Redlanders would like to do with the 62 hectares. I would like to know where the overwhelming support came from for the white water facility? I know it wasn't the survey. I hear only 8.9 per cent of people taking the survey wanted it and an overwhelming 78.8 per cent wanted it to be kept and used for nature trails. The council need to show where the overwhelming support came from; otherwise, people are going to think that once again (like Toondah), we are not being listened to. Being a leader means you listen to the people and do what they wantcreating a town they want. So please, Redland City Council please release all of the information you have that says Redlanders wish to pay for and run an expensive electricity guzzling white water facility when we already have a plethora of creeks, bays and streams we can canoe in? Tania Kromoloff, Cleveland
Reject more development
I attended a cleanup day recently at Toondah Harbour. Joining others, including Sea Shepherd members and Australian Conservation Foundation members. It is hard to imagine anyone could think an enormous development of this area could benefit the local inhabitants, including endangered koalas, dugongs, migratory birds, seagrasses, and turtles. With climate change making a dreadful impact, these wetland areas are critical to our future. Mangroves are the lungs of the world. Local, state and federal governments must reject the development proposal. Beth Charleston.
