Do you have an opinion to share? Submit a Letter to the Editor at Sunshine Coast News via news@sunshinecoastnews.com.au. You must include your name and suburb for accountability, credibility and transparency. Preference will be give to letters of 100 words or less.
- Read the story: Leash fine dispute leaves dog owner facing $3000 bill
Christine Bennett, Nambour: Council’s regulation and fine, issued to Robyn Watkins, is a top-heavy miscarriage of justice. While it is true that the court had little choice other than to increase the fine, in view of a default appearance, the entire fiasco of the $3000 fine should now be dismissed and council’s irrational regulation repealed. Holding a dog leash by hand or placing it underfoot are both appropriate methods of restraint. In fact, it may also be the case that requiring a leash to be held is discriminatory against those with disabilities. I have seen a dog being walked while attached to a wheelchair. Is that against council regulations too? A person using their body weight to restrain a dog’s leash underfoot is every bit as effective as a leash being hand held. Ms Watkin’s old deaf dog was, in fact, fully and appropriately restrained. Council has gone too far with this absurd regulation.
Leigh Colliver, Melbourne: We all make mistakes. A genuine lady stressing and making herself sick over something so simple. Let’s help her out: I’m in.
Name withheld, Buderim: I read with interest your article about Robyn Watkins and her dog, just before we were to attend the magistrates court about our dog, and my sympathies go out to her. Her suggestion about informing new and present owners of animals of the updated requirements should be included with every registration. We did not know all this when we acquired a rescue dog. I think she is extremely brave to go public. We thought about doing the same because of our incident but were not prepared to do anything. Robyn, we are thinking of you as this has been one of the more unpleasant experiences of my 80-odd years of life.
Alan Holden: Tell her to pay the fine and leave the dogs at home.
Dierdre Assink, Parrearra: I did see the film clip of this lady and her stressful situation. I really thought it was over the top by the inspector not even wanting to see her point of view. I feel this business lady has tried her very best to create a living in a beautiful area. A lovely experience for shoppers and a personal achievement for herself. Later, I feel she will look back on this nightmare of an experience, holding on for dear life trying to make an honest living. Unfortunately, the environment at present can’t support local small business little luxuries, the kind the proprietor sells.
To miss the court hearing is a sign of confusion and overwhelming behaviour. The courts won’t care. It’s just black and white to the magistrate. Dear lady, as much as this is shattering, it’s time to allow your close friend and friends take care of you. You have a beautiful heart I feel, being a pet lover. Surrender, let go and take good care of yourself. The sun will rise tomorrow and onwards. For now let the sun set on this hard cold chapter. All the best sweet lady.
- Read the story: Fed-up resident calls for action on parked caravans and Rankled by roadside caravans
Kay Gregory, Buddina: Yes, vans and trailers are registered to be on the road. Out of respect to others, storage is a more suitable solution. We own our land, but we pay rates. Same thing applies: own a trailer or van, storage is better. The council can and should erect signs in trouble spots, ‘Car parking only’. Some councils have done this. Solves the problem.
Carolyn, Dicky Beach: I was sort of comforted to read Ashley’s comments to realise I am not the only one annoyed by the same things. I live on Beerburrum Street, Dicky Beach, and all the caravans, boats and motorhomes continually parked there annoy me so much (see picture below). I have contacted the council and was told that as long as they are registered they are not breaking the law. One caravan has been parked continually for over 12 months without moving. This is just free caravan storage! Some are registered interstate and left there for months. Between Tinbeerwah and Coolum streets is the entry and exit point of Dicky Beach, a beautiful village with appeal and yet most days it looks like a caravan and boat storage area.
The parking signs were changed about a year ago to six-hour parking and all that happened was they all moved to the other side of the road. The car park at the surf club and near the caravan park is not adequate and during the summer months families are forced to park a long distance from the beach because of these parked caravans, boats and motorhomes. Surely there is a way to control this and council needs to step up to work out a better system and law so that residents and their visitors can use the street parking and not allow people too mean to pay for storage to use our roads, clogging up parking and impairing views of traffic.
Janice Boys, Narangba: I am sick to death of caravans being parked on the street I live in and they never use the caravan. It takes up one side of the road. I have to drive on the opposite side of the road to get past and then the oncoming traffic. This almost causes an accident about two times a week. I contacted the council and they did nothing and said the caravan was not a problem. Well it’s okay for the council: they do not have to drive past every day and experience almost being collected by incoming traffic. Why can’t they park the caravan on their property?
Stephen Menzies, Kuluin: Council doesn’t have a problem allowing backyards to fill up with dual occupancy, granny flats etc buts seem to have issues with carports on the six metres in front of houses. They want the streetscape to look nice and, yes, people will use the garage as another bedroom, but isn’t that the agenda they are pushing, for accommodation to squeeze in as many as possible?
Denise Ramsey, Caloundra West: This is the second complaint I’ve made to Sunshine Coast Council. A few years ago, it was a large motorhome parked long-term in one of two designated car spaces next to my residence. Council advised that nothing could be done (the vehicle was legally parked) and we had to contend with the eyesore for years. It finally came to an end when the owner moved house and took his motorhome with him.
Fast forward and there is now a caravan parked long-term in one of the car spaces again. It’s unsightly and blocks the view of traffic as the location is on a bend. The gas bottles are located at the front and I’m wondering if this is a safety issue for the public. I would like the council to implement laws so that this practice is stopped.
Read R. Ferguson: Leave them alone. They are allowed. That’s the law. They are not leaving rubbish and they book into showgrounds so stop and spend money in towns.
Stuart Davis, Buddina: The impact of caravans, boats and trailers parked semi-permanently in the street, often more than one of the above to a single dwelling, adversely impacts neighbours’ safety and equitable opportunity to have access to casual street parking. We have building regulations that prohibit various alterations to property due to reasons of ‘streetscape’ and yet it is permissible to have caravans etc of more than two metres high and that extend beyond the owner’s boundaries or block the nature strip. There needs to be limits to length, height and duration that are not undermined by simply moving a few metres once a week.
- Read the story: ‘8.5m to 35m’: draft scheme sparks concerns
David Johnson, Bokarina: I agree 100 per cent with the sentence “Others have praised the draft planning scheme for creating opportunities for businesses, investors and the wider community” so long as it’s not at the expense of that “wider community”, which all too often proves to be the case. It’s a classic tale of developers and councils chasing the dollars at the public and communities’ expense. The very first step must be a master plan for the entire Sunshine Coast looking not to next year but a 40- or 50-year look-ahead plan, and agreed by all now. I love the Sunshine Coast from Caloundra to Noosa and beyond but I’m loathe to see it become Gold Coast 2.0.
Erich Stark, Maroochydore: Bungama Street is the heart of proposed six-storey residential. This is good land use between the Maroochy town centre and the beach. Increased traffic means it slows down and it’s safer. Our planet isn’t growing, that’s why we focus on better land use.
Janet Thomas, Birtinya: Personally I think the council is a joke. We have been through this whole scenario with my suburb, Birtinya. High density means more people, more cars and more traffic. Another nightmare waiting to happen. Yes, we desperately need low-cost housing but at what cost to the surrounds?
- Read the story: $20m emergency works fast tracked for Bribie repairs
Arthur Marshman, Narangba: Why not build a break wall/causeway from Caloundra to Bribie Island? Stabilise the entrance with a bridge over it. Then a road the length of Bribie Island. That would: eliminate the need for a duplicate bridge, protect Golden Beach, stabilise the entrance and make it safer, create a permanent lagoon at Caloundra, create a great surf beach, and make Bribie Island a real part of the Sunshine Coast.
Anne Palmer, SA: We, in South Australia, have been moving sand for years. Now, Semaphore has lost its beautiful dunes and the sand at Brighton and Seacliff is still being replenished. What for?
Sandra Fietz, Beerwah: There is work being done on the foreshore of Golden Beach with rocks etc to protect the shoreline. Finally some common sense. Aerial views show the build-up of sand in the passage, which limits major wave activity. This has always been the case. Bribie is a sand island. There will always be sand build-up in the passage. Please, Sunshine Coast Council and Queensland Government, use that $20 million for the whole Sunshine Coast and Queensland population, not just the 2000-odd signatures on the petition. We voted for you, not just those 2000 people.
John Blundell, Gold Coast: Those paying taxes and rates should not be paying for protection of houses on the foreshores.
Jeff Tuttle, Caloundra: I went to the meeting recently to advise our community of the ongoing plans to fix the Bribie Island breaches. I have to compliment the government on their transparency and communication with the public. I was also impressed that this project has a coordinator working to bring all the disparate parts into a cohesive group. I also recognise that the majority in the room was in favor of the proposed action, it seemed. I hesitated to stand up and voice my perspective there because I am an immigrant, albeit a citizen for 12 years now, and I thought it might elicit some resentment.
Here’s the thing: I have been through this before. My wife and I owned a unit on the beach in north San Diego. There was a small boat harbour there that had been there for decades. After 9/11, the Marine Corps adjacent to our community decided to enlarge their capacity to launch their small craft that would service the ships that stood offshore to protect US. This resulted in a change in the sand shift patterns and the sand down the shoreline began eroding. We once had a beach to rival those in Australia but when we sold in 2018 it had degenerated to mostly pebbles and blackened sand from the dredging. However, the real issue is initially the government said they would pay for the dredging to keep the harbour entrance open and sand on our resort-style coast. This lasted for about a decade until budget cuts caused the US government to opt out and the Oceanside Council started picking up the bill. I can’t say what it costs now but by the time we left the price had doubled.
I guess the moral of the story is $20 million seems like a lot but even they admit it’s just the beginning. How much? How long? To what end? My recommendation: don’t mess with Mother Nature. Enhance shore protections for the homes we have built in Golden Beach but leave the breaches to the capricious wants of nature alone.
- Read the story: Police crack down on e-riders, parents face fines
Kathie Hughes, Warana: Imagine this. This is a dangerous, unnecessary, everyday occurrence on the beachfronts all along Kawana. As a former medical worker, I’m concerned about the societal comfort and public safety of e-scooters and e-bikes. From a dodgem-car type walk, paths that were pedestrian friendly are no longer. We call for a council movement on this. This is an Australia-wide problem. Let the Sunshine Coast Council and residents lead the solutions. Host a community roundtable or on this. The number of e-scooter hospital presentations has doubled in two years. As a community, let’s do something on this, there are lots of solutions.
Joy Sargood, Buderim: On Sunday, August 3, about 1.15pm I was coming off Mooloolaba Road onto Wises Road to head north towards the roundabout, when I heard all this ‘yeeharring’ and I couldn’t believe what I saw: about six to eight boys about 14 years old on e-bikes etc coming over the top of the motorway through the lights on the main lane of a busy road. Some were up on one wheel and the cars were all around them. I wanted to take a photo as they did not care one bit and were laughing and unafraid, but I thought, knowing the authorities these days, I would be in trouble for taking a photo while behind the wheel, albeit in line and not moving.
All I can say, with disgust, as a citizen who has to pay for registration, insurance, fuel, car and a licence, is please explain. It is just wrong and blatant disrespect and no fear of the law. Enough is enough. When will they crack down on it? It’s bad enough they go flying past you on the side walks etc and the thing is they are riding a lethal weapon that can harm and maim or even kill someone.
Roderick Davidson, Springfield: I’ve seen two e-scooter accidents. The first one was two children on one e-scooter riding on the footpath. I was stopped in my car waiting to turn right, when they came to the intersection they tried to cross just as the lights changed to green. The kids were definitely doing between 10km/h and 20km/h and the driver who hit them almost certainly did not see them as they were too fast and unexpected. The other incident was an adult riding his scooter on the road and rode straight into the side of a car. As I drove alongside this rider briefly I estimated that he was doing 30km/h to 40km/h. The two children were badly hurt. I don’t know about the adult as I was driving and did not see the aftermath. In another incident, I was walking on the footpath and was suddenly passed by an e-scooter. There was no warning as they make no sound and he was very close as the footpath is only about one metre wide. If he was doing the legal speed limit then he was doing 25km/h.
Apparently, in 2024, there were 118 e-scooter and e-bike injured people admitted to the Sunshine Coast University Hospital. That’s 118 riders to one single hospital in one year. Taking in all these facts together I think there is a clear argument that e-scooters and e-bikes should be banned.
- Read the story: New Bribie bridge a step closer as business case released
Sue Faux, Glass House Mountains: I travel to Banksia Beach at least once a month and I see a back-up of traffic going across the Bribie Island main overpass bridge. This bridge needs an upgrade but better still another new bridge to ease traffic congestion. One day soon this bridge will start showing its age with faults happening. So Bribie residents, start now alerting council to plan for new bridge.
- Read the story: Locals push back on supermarket plan
Rex, Tewantin: This area is always congested, especially mornings and late afternoon, because it has only one road to it and this, being the main entry to Cooroy and subsequently Noosa, will always cause trouble, which will no doubt have to be corrected eventually by the Noosa Council and subsequently the ratepayers.
Mark and Jan Rose, Cooroy: Perhaps the Noosa Shire Residents and Ratepayers Association is right about the proposed location drawing residents out of town. It would be much better to have Woolworths in town, in the vacant lot on Emerald Street across from Terry White Chemist. Then, residents could reap probable savings in the weekly grocery shop brought about by the competition of two different supermarkets.
- Successful people
Garry Reynolds, Peregian Springs: People often believe that success depends on a sliding door moment when their life could have gone one way or the other. Personal coaching guru Steven Bartlett sees it differently. “Successful people have mental health challenges, bad habits, gaps in their knowledge, moments of self-doubt, procrastination issues, imperfect routines, insecurities and imposter syndrome. But they also know that these are perfectly normal – that is the difference.” They don’t let these issues define who they are or serve as excuses for not achieving their dreams. Famous basketballer Michael Jordan gives us all hope when he says, “I failed over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.”
Recently, I awoke to the news that my fleeting association with a successful person was marked by a shimmering gold gown when I saw my girlfriend from 1969, Lynne McGranger, bestowed with the Gold Logie for her role as Irene in Home and Away for 33 years. She retains a great sense of humour, which she had to date me when she was 15 and vivacious, and I was 19 and nerdy – beauty and the geek. In accepting the Logie, Lynne said, “This is going to take pride of place next to my 1974 Wagga Wagga drama festival best actress award. That’s when I thought this acting is kind of good! Maybe I will be better at it than I am teaching.”
Like Michael Jordan, Lynne persisted and went on to fame and fortune because, as Vidal Sassoon remarked, “The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” Lynne’s husband sounds like an interesting chap. After she spoke of her love for him, Lynne said his reply to her invitation to attend the awards was, “I would rather swallow a hammer!” Steven Bartlett concludes that no matter what cards we are dealt, no amount of regret can change the past, and no amount of worrying can change the future.
Do you have an opinion to share? Submit a Letter to the Editor at Sunshine Coast News via news@sunshinecoastnews.com.au. You must include your name and suburb for accountability, credibility and transparency. Preference will be give to letters of 100 words or less.
