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: Proposed Woolworths supermarket faces community pushback
Nick Smith, Tin Can Bay: I read with bewilderment the article regarding the proposal for 15 shops etc in Cooroy.
Living in Tin Can Bay it was very much acceptable major news when Woolies opened in Cooloola Cove. It was a welcoming centre generating local employment and other opportunities in the area.
None of us are getting any younger, and with the possibility for younger people to move into the area if older locals take up the opportunity to live in the proposed retirement village, then it’s got to be a good thing for all concerned, surely?
I guess for those against it, it must be a “not in my backyard” mentality, which is fine, but I do think it would be progressive and increase the value of their properties.
Ron Green: The thought of Mr Ritchie and others who do not wish to see this development get the go ahead because of the outside town plan and the harm it may cause the two same brand / owners IGA stores in town. He speaks for his own and his association’s interests, and the rest of us in the surrounding areas of Cooran, Pomona, Kin Kin, Eumundi and the areas west of Cooroy, and most in Cooroy, do not wish to agree with him .
The IGA stores are identical in operation and owned by the same people, so that doesn’t give us a lot of price comparison to our advantage.
Unlike Coles and Woolworths, which have a greater price advantage due to their size and we, the shoppers, save money in hard times. If you took a shopper enquiry in these areas as listed above and asked their thoughts on this, I’m sure the answer would be let it come as it helps our savings on grocery purchases. Mr Ritchie and his association speak only for a minor portion of shoppers in this zone.
Mark and Jan Rose, Cooroy: I believe a Woolworths would be a welcome addition for the residents of Cooroy who are now suffering with the rising cost of living not being lessened by competition due to the monopoly of two IGA supermarkets with no other competition to keep prices down.
Ian Faulkner, Cooroy: Bring it on.
- Read the story: Odour concerns prompt intervention at hinterland facility
Bob Higgs, Little Mountain: I am regularly in Landsborough for the train station and a mug of the Sunshine Coast’s best coffee at The Steaming Cup. While enjoying the drink around the great new landscaping around the station, I am often appalled at the acrid render factory stink. It is a real blight on the area and about time the render business moved to a more industrial or remote area. This industrial land is now a prime development site near a rail station, so if council rezoned the land to residential for the business, the costs to move would be more than covered.
Ross, Landsborough: I agree wholeheartedly with the concerns raised about the odour coming from the Norganics facility. The smell has been an ongoing issue for years and despite repeated complaints, nothing meaningful has changed.
In addition to the odour, the constant flow of heavy trucks entering and leaving the site at all hours has become completely unacceptable for a town that has grown significantly.
What may have been tolerated decades ago is no longer suited to a community, which now includes many young families and new residents.
I previously met with former councillor Rick Baberowski about these issues, but those discussions led nowhere. The reality is simple: this facility is no longer compatible with the neighbourhood around it.
The state‑owned land should be repurposed as parkland and the facility closed. Landsborough deserves a cleaner, safer and more liveable environment.
- Read the story: Video cameras installed at beaches for safety
Graham Lockey, Coolum Beach: To the ‘nay-sayers’ regarding the ‘smart poles’, I would ask what is the difference between a lifeguard scanning the surf/beach with his eyes, through binoculars, or watching a screen?
That lifeguard is still looking out for everyone’s safety. The capacity to contact emergency services from these poles is a great idea and will, no doubt, save lives. The ‘keyboard warriors’ need to understand not everyone has a mobile phone, and in some areas cell service is not good either.
Also, hopefully, these ‘smart poles’ will outsmart those antisocial individuals who would otherwise have unrestricted capacity to degrade other beachgoers experiences on the wonderful Sunshine Coast beaches.
- Read the story: Surf club access to open for holidays
Bob Carroll, Maroochydore: Sunshine Coast Council have closed down 2km of prime beach front access between the Mooloolaba Surf Club and the Alex Surf Club and continue to diddle about doing small amounts of work here and there rather than working furiously on one section at a time. This project has been dragging on for nearly four years, creating dire financial hardship for businesses and preventing locals access to the beach front. Whoever is in charge of this project needs a really good shake up.
If that isn’t enough you then have council diddling around in Cotton Tree with roads closed for months with traffic delays and redirections. It’s about time the mayor and the CEO listened to the businesses and the residents and stepped up the work rate and got this mess sorted out.
- Read the stories: Council rates spark petition and Two councillors to donate pay rises
Diane Robinson, Golden Beach: How does the Sunshine Coast Council justify an increase in rates to the extent of 9.7 per cent? That’s double CPI and over double other major councils. There is no valid justification for such a substantial increase when the comparisons are made. Does the state government have power to audit any council’s spending, running costs, wages, increases etc? If they do, this council needs auditing immediately. An increase, yes, but not to the tune of this exorbitant 9.7 per cent.
Kay Ottaway, Kawana Waters: I write regarding the incompetent financial management of our regional council. The rates have risen to cover expenditure blowouts and yet money is still spent on totally unnecessary projects. Take, for example, the short stretch of footpath installed on Pacific Boulevard: there is now a cement walkway on both sides of the street? All over the Coast you see perfectly good infrastructure destroyed to make way for a newer, more expensive model of the same thing.
We have an enormous council building in Maroochydore and yet suburban council chambers are continuing to be refurbished. Why wasn’t the new building in Maroochydore designed to accommodate all staff? Perhaps there was not enough room given the need for very indulgent, elaborate yet unnecessary communal areas. Why is the library in Caloundra such a massive building? Was this really necessary when the budget was clearly in a bad way?
This council appears to believe that money grows on trees and if there is a shortfall due to their own over spending and poor management they simply expect rate payers to foot their bill.
Let’s hope there is someone with a conscience prepared to stand for election next time around. We don’t need any more career politicians running our local government.
Bob Gregory, Buderim: My income, as a pensioner, does not have a built-in 9.7 percent increase this year, and whether the proposed rise in rates is because of inflation or growth of new projects or because of greed, like many others, I find it exceedingly difficult to support such a large rate increase.
“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centres of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” – Robert F. Kennedy, Cape Town, June 6, 1966.
John Hanger, Banya: How does the council have the gall to give themselves a pay rise while slugging ratepayers with greatly increased rates. They are already on very good salaries and should show restraint when it comes to lining their own pockets in the current financial climate. They are out of touch with the community.
- Read the story: Jane Stephens: dangerous and everywhere
Jan Wilson, Wurtulla: I totally agree with Jane Stephens’ article. More must be done to the ensure the safety of pedestrians and all road users. Maybe start with checking all schools for illegal machines and confiscating them immediately, then check at shopping centre car parks. I realise it is a lot of extra work for our police, but we must start somewhere.
- Read the story: MPs support statewide petition calling for tougher bail laws
Meredyth Sauer: If youths are caught once for an offence, give them bail once and let them know that they will not get bail again. If they offend again – they were warned. No further bail.
- Read the story: $300m redevelopment proposed for former bowls club site
Pepe Kath: Regarding the proposed multi-storey gigantic accommodation at Noosa Junction. For goodness’ sake, give Noosa a break. It’s already falling apart.
- Read the story: Questions raised over street layout during council work
Trisha Jacobsen: There are too many boats, caravans, trailers (often builders’ ones) parked on the roadside in suburban streets. Some of them have been booted to avoid theft. Some are in dangerous places like near corners and junctions. It seems that council should hire out spaces to put such items that residents need. Caravans can be stored out by the airport, but all complexes need to have some allocated parking included in their planning and building.
This is to be considered in the future please. Retirement villages need parking bays in their design as well as driveway, car parking for extra visitors, trailers, caravans too. For future consideration, please.
- The ‘Red Queen’
Margaret Wilkie, Peregian Beach: Is it true that in Wonderland the Dodo, the Duchess, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum have joined the Mad Hatter to form the Red Queen’s Team. When questioned, the Red Queen trumpeted: “All ways here are my ways”. (L. Carroll).
- Confronting tough times
Gary Reynolds, Peregian Springs: There seems to be a contest in Australian politics and in parts of the media to see who can catastrophise our daily lives the most. Every hiccup becomes a crisis, every challenge a disaster, every policy disagreement a national unravelling.
If you believed half the commentary, you’d think the country was held together with masking tape and crossed fingers.
But ordinary Australians know something the doomsayers forget: people can, and often do, rise during tough times. Not just survive them – grow through them.
History is full of this inconvenient truth. During the Second World War, when London was being bombed night after night, author Sebastian Junger notes that “psychiatrists watched in puzzlement as long-standing patients saw their symptoms subside during the period of intense air raids”. In other words, when the world shook, people steadied.
The same pattern emerged after the September 11 attacks in New York. Amid the grief and shock, researchers recorded several unexpected outcomes, including that the suicide rate dropped by around 20 per cent in the six months following the attacks.
Communities drew closer. Strangers looked out for one another. People rediscovered purpose, connection and courage.
None of this romanticises hardship. Tough times are tough. But they also reveal something we too easily overlook in calmer seasons: character. Resilience. The deep human instinct to help, to rebuild, to stand shoulder to shoulder.
Perhaps that is what we should be talking about more often – not the endless drumbeat of doom, but the quiet strength that emerges when life presses in. The truth is, Australians have never been defined by catastrophe. We are defined by how we respond to it. And sometimes, the very pressure we fear is the pressure that grows us.
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.
