YOUR SAY: Birkdale Precinct has its fans and detractors

It will be the best thing this suburb has ever seen and my parents are very excited that it will be somewhere they can take their grandchildren. I, too, know people who go to the Baptist church on Jones Road and was worried that was where the entrance was going to be. But I looked at the floorplan online and it doesn't enter there. The entry is along Old Cleveland Road near the middle of the land with plenty of parking. All this stuff detractors carry on about is quite clearly in the maps. If they looked, they would have been informed that none of it is in the natural habitat protection zoning. So, YES to Birkdale precinct and NO to people who don't know what's good for the community.

Janice McCarthy, Capalaba

I want to respond to your excellent interview with the Mayor on the proposed Birkdale Water Park.

So, the Mayor has finally admitted that the Council has and had no idea if the proposed park would be a profitable venture or not. The response still leaves numerous points unanswered. Some of which are:

Where did the figure of $52 million come from? Was it a figure designed to impress us, or perhaps it was the sum of throwing the darts at a board?

Council is hanging its hat on rail duplication plus bus way completion. Neither will take place before 2032 as there will not be funds available.

The comparison between Birkdale and Penrith is again misleading. Facts are Penrith is approximately 25 per cent larger than the whole of the Redlands. The client base for Penrith is Sydney which is twice that of Brisbane. So again, a problem.

Why would a person living in Brisbane spend money coming to Birkdale and paying an entry fee when they can swim at South Bank for free?

It appears that Redlands City Council has been conned into taking up a facility that no one wanted as it felt that it would raise the stature of the Redlands. Unfortunately, this is a huge mistake that will cost us, ratepayers, thousands of dollars.

First, Toondah and the claim that 36oo units would have no traffic effects on Cleveland, now the water park, what's next, a bridge to Straddie?

Ian Lynch, Wellington Point

I am so happy that climate change is on the agenda. I am so happy that our indigenous first nations people will finally gain a voice in parliament. I feel the far right is far wrong. Very happy with the outcome. I wish in the Bowman electorate we could have added the Green and Labor vote together and not elect Pike. The Liberals are holding us back.

Kelly Melai, Cleveland

Great to see a true right-wing Christian family man in Henry Pike get elected in Bowman. I am not so happy to see a Labor government federally. We will have three years bombarded with refugees, gay rights, climate change and other lefty causes while true Australian values get cast aside.

I hope the Liberal Party and Henry Pike follow where the people are and go to the right and not fall for the media's trick of forcing it to the centre. Bowman showed what Australians want. A right-leaning, Christian, true family representative. Henry Pike is the template the Liberal Party should follow for all its candidates in the next election.

L Hanson, Cleveland

After months of searching, I settled in Redlands in 1983 with a young family because it was a suburb with a country feel about it. Lots of trees, and bush walks were a common pastime for most who lived here as you would always see Koalas in abundance. We would see dolphins in the whilst swimming or just walking on the foreshore in the bay. Buying fresh produce from the many farms in the area.

Unfortunately, the removal in the last ten years of our leafy trees & bushland has greatly diminished numbers of our Koalas & other fauna & flora, maybe some never to be seen again.

J.Hicks

As a very regular early morning walker around our local area, it is disappointing to note the systematic removal by the RCC of rubbish bins in Council public parks and thoroughfares. I raised this issue with the RCC through our local Councillor and received the rather ludicrously bureaucratic and erroneous reply from the appropriate Council officer acknowledging that they are removing many public bins across the city.

On receiving this reply, I measured the distance apart of a number of the bins in our area now that the RCC has removed quite a few of them and some are now up to 500 meters apart. A few of us early morning walkers, only too aware of the unsocial and unhealthy manner by which 'litterbugs' dispose of their rubbish, actually pick up some of the discarded rubbish in the local parks and footpaths. Ten meters is too far for many of them to walk to put their rubbish in a public bin.

One of the very fundamental duties of any responsible Council is providing a clean and healthy environment around public parks. I find it difficult to accept that the Redlands City Council would consciously encourage more litter to be disposed of in public areas by systematically removing public rubbish bins throughout Redlands City. Indeed not a good look when you are trying to encourage visitors to the beautiful Bayside.

Chris Reeves