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 given to letters of 100 words or less.
- Read the story: ‘Life savings at risk’: park residents protest proposed changes
Robyn Deane, Nambour: Did council and its bureaucrats stop to consider the permanent residents of Dicky Beach Holiday Park, or were they only looking at the bottom line in the budget? How unfair of the Sunshine Coast Council to want to change the arrangements for the permanent residents. Why should they lose on their investment in a permanent home? Presumably, most are in their senior years and maybe they will need to move into aged care, but with the devaluing of their homes they will unlikely be able to afford it.
As others have said, it is tin-eared, greedy and heartless, and more so, as many communities, such as Nambour, are struggling to cope with the number of homeless people with nowhere to live. Perhaps council should be considering ways to make more of these permanent sites available rather than reducing their number. Is now really a good time to remove affordable housing from the market?
Jeniffer Ellem: Council lost the plot when it handed over management of its caravan parks to just a single, very much “for profit” company. This company now has a monopoly on management of every council-owned park – essentially every beachfront caravan park on the entire Sunshine Coast including Noosa. How can this be good for consumers, or councils, or ratepayers? What is council getting from this deal? And what is this company making from its licence to print money? Fees have gone up to unaffordable levels for most families, maintenance has gone down, necessary structures (an entire amenities block at Cotton Tree demolished) to save cleaning and maintenance costs etc.
Kicking out long-term residents from parks is just the tip of the iceberg. Council needs to take better responsibility for its income-earning assets and also provide services to the community. Private contractors are not the way to do this, without stringent oversight. Current management of all council caravan parks needs to be thoroughly investigated. How did they get the contract? What are the contract conditions? Why was a monopoly awarded to one operator?
Col Pickering: The problem is Queensland wide, whether it’s council or a private park. I personally have travelled throughout Queensland over the past 20 years giving advice to residents in regard to park rules. The biggest common problem is that residents don’t own the land. They generally pay lower site fees for the obvious reason of owning their dwellings.
The initial proposal of staying in park for as long as they wish, with the proviso of not being able to sell, would be deemed as more than reasonable to resolve in mediation, either via QCAT or another legal avenue. Residents could, however, based on variance of being unhappy, invest in moving to another park that has suitable spaces at a cost of $50,000 to $75,000 to the resident to have their home moved from A to B. The dilemma caravan parks have is that your lease is renewed yearly. It’s very rare council or private owners pay compensation, even though profits will be made without permanents being there.
- Read the story: Plans revived for tourism project on key motorway site
Lynette Saxton, Yaroomba: The developer extensively consulted the Coolum community on the previous proposal yet there has been no consultation on these changes, which raises suspicion for me. I have looked at the modifications and it is really starting to look just like a commercial development, not an agribusiness/tourism development. After years of court cases this land remained rural at the wishes of the Coolum community. And it is still rural in the draft of the new planning scheme. The reason they had an underground car park (which they now want to remove) was because they were allowing the school to use their parking facilities. Is that still the case? I hope council sees the light with this one.
- Read the story: ‘Coalition’ urges minister to reject festival site proposal
Paul Keating: This area of the Pumicestone Passage is used by many on a regular basis for quiet boating, fishing and bird watching. Loud music events are not compatible with the quiet natural environment. In this busy, fast world we need to preserve undeveloped natural spaces between our suburbs for quiet recreational activities. Can the music lobby look at using already established venues such as Woodford?
Peta Sleeman, Coochin Creek: I have lived on Roys Road for 23 years, right across the road from the proposed Coochin Fields development. We cannot wait for this development to go ahead, it would be an amazing world-class venue for the Sunshine Coast area. It would create a lot of employment and bring a lot business to the local area. If this development does not go ahead as an event centre, what are the alternatives: another 20,000 homes like Aura with no infrastructure? Or maybe more farms that spray their crops? What will that do to the environment and Coochin Creek?
Paul Prociv, Mount Mellum: It’s hard to believe that Planning Minister Jarrod Bleijie, in pushing the Coochin Fields tourist park development, could be ignorant of Woodfordia, a site developed expressly for similar events but in a far less ecologically sensitive area, and now in financial distress. What are we not being told here? It’s so disappointing that the Crisafulli Government, which came to power with such grand promises, seems to be quickly reverting to the behaviour of its predecessors.
- Read the stories: Stats reveal caravan and trailer parking headache and Fed-up resident calls for action on parked caravans
John Hunt, Forest Glen: What is it that council does not get? TMR says council can manage caravan parking on streets; council says it is hampered by TMR rules. Your recent article presented reasons why council was unable to act on this issue, yet TMR states that councils can manage the problem with a few simple steps. Is council unwilling to act?
We appear to have rules and regulations for everything, but caravans are too difficult so we blame others. Isn’t it time to demand our council stop kicking the can down the road and show some leadership and decisiveness? The aesthetics and safety of our residential streets appear not to matter. C’mon council, do your job.
Jenny Paterson, Victoria: We are holidaying on the Sunshine Coast at present. We are in a caravan park. I get that it’s frustrating for residents … but nobody has mentioned the extortionate prices at caravan parks. Often over $100 per night just for a piece of grass to camp on. If they keep it up, people from Victoria will stop coming for the winter and supporting local businesses.
- Read the story: Patients face 30km trip if public dental clinic closes
Phil Broad, Nambour: Let’s think outside the square and consider one of the Noosa Shire’s most vibrant, go-ahead hinterland towns that would ideally suit a state dental care clinic. Cooroy has a wonderful demographic mix of all ages, it is situated perfectly for all modes of transport and is easily accessible from other hinterland town as well as Tewantin and Noosa. Commercial premises rent would be cheaper and would decrease the number of private cars travelling from Noosa Shire to Nambour. Being the beautiful village it is, there would be no problem getting staff to live and work there and free up congestion in Nambour.
- Read the story: Planning underway for new road to ease congestion
Andrew Moran, Battery Hill: Let’s give MP Kendall Morton the benefit of the doubt when she says congestion is “the single biggest issue for the electorate of Caloundra”, when all the research says cost of living issues are, and agree that the Congestion Busting Plan will benefit Caloundra. The critical questions that were unanswered prior to the election, at the announcement made in July and in the latest projects update, are still unanswered. What will the works cost and who’s paying for it, what are the task list priorities and what will be delivered by when?
The latest announcement is that it’s not known when work could start or finish, or how much it could cost. Or who’s paying for the work that the announced $450 million was never going to cover, if it’s not the state government? We don’t need more of the “planning is happening” announcements. We need straight answers to the simple questions now.
- Read the story: Terminal transformation plans revealed in flythrough
Ken Coulter, Ilkley: I am sure the elderly and families carrying babies will appreciate on a wet, windy evening trying to disembark aircraft down an unprotected set of steep steps. Just about the most important reason for any airport is the disembarkation and boarding of passengers onto aircraft. So why have these “experienced” planners not designed a new terminal to cater for the basics and provide air bridges? Air bridges enable all passengers to disembark and embark aircraft in comfort in any weather. Plus they provide a quicker turnaround. Sure, this may require a two-storey building but when you are spending millions, make sure you get the basics correct. Even if it costs extra now. To spend tens of millions of dollars on lavish lounges etc and then expect passengers to negotiate a steep unprotected set of stairs to board and disembark aircraft does not make sense. Council, get the basics right.
Marguerite Ross, Maleny: I’m wondering why there are no jet bridges incorporated into the airport makeover plans in order to eliminate transferring from airport to plane in wet weather and enabling passengers with disabilities to transfer easily from airport to plane? I book flights out of Brisbane in order to have better amenities, which the Sunshine Coast Airport lacks.
Anthony Robinson, Alexandra Headland: Again the Sunshine Coast last week demonstrated a boarding fiasco with the dual departure of two international flights (one caused by a plane relocation) but highlighting the inadequate boarding facility compounded by a grossly inadequate PA system. I have previously contacted management but a feeble response suggesting the Sunshine Coast Airport is only a regional airport and unable to offer the same level of service as the Gold Coast Airport was their suggestion.
- Still old-school kids
Garry Reynolds, Peregian Springs: October is Queensland Seniors Month, embracing the valuable lessons that have stuck with children who grew up in the 1950s and ’60s. I’m one of these old-school kids.
Lesson one was that hard work was non-negotiable. Helping around the house was a given. We were told money didn’t grow on trees and pocket money was no more than that – the coins would jingle in your pocket. Teachers were authority figures and discipline was strict. We spent most of our spare time freely adventuring with other kids. Helicopter parenting was a rarity. With few mothers going out to work, meals were home-cooked and fast food was mostly fish and chips wrapped in newspaper. Working hard in a part-time job was an opportunity to gain an education in the university-of-life while saving up for that special something.
In the 1950s and ’60s, patience wasn’t just a virtue but a way of life, whereas today, with ready access to mobile communication, there is an emphasis on instant access and gratification. Patient frugality was a necessity, not a lifestyle choice. We could expect that our standard of living would be higher than that of our parents, and our patient hard work would enable us to buy a house and raise a family. I empathise with young people today who feel they can no longer realistically dream of these. Societies with higher levels of mutual respect have lower crime rates and increased social cohesion. Respect wasn’t just a courtesy; it was an expectation of how we addressed our elders and represented our family in public. Our parents taught us that each person had a role to play in the community and deserved to be treated with respect, whether it was the old man across the road, the lady behind the counter or the dunny man. Family was the heart of our lives, with annual holidays based around visiting nanna and pa or going camping with other families, often to the same place each year.
These memories could be dismissed as wistfully out of date, but they’ve stayed with us because they work and are values worth passing on to future generations, especially on Grandparents Day celebrated on October 26.
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 given to letters of 100 words or less.
