Bellerive changes benefit us all

DEVELOPMENT

I CAN understand why well-heeled Bellerive silvertails and Bellerive yacht club members may be concerned about the small encroachment on their views and greater competition for parking (Letters, November 4). They have had the use of these public assets at no cost for decades. The majority of funds to spruce up and improve access to Kangaroo Bay came from the Federal Government, not Clarence City Council. They were part of a creative deployment of those funds given to forestry communities to transition forestry workers away from forestry — read create employment. So their use to promote the establishment of a hotel and training establishment is consistent with the purpose of these funds.

The Clarence community has benefited from improved access, removal of the ferry terminal eyesore, walking/cycling paths and other facilities. The building of the hotel complex will create community jobs, during construction and afterwards. It is up to the our Clarence council representatives and the State Government to ensure decisions on Kangaroo Bay are made for the whole community (Clarence and Tasmanian), and not just for the privileged few. waters? I wouldn’t like to see Macquarie Point wall to wall with buildings similar to the CBD. We need to preserve the foreshore as an open area of interest where all citizens and tourists can relax and enjoy our city along with the River Derwent shoreline.

Hold on tight

I HOPE the same people that were supposed to anchor the Kingston Beach pontoon don’t get asked to secure the proposed floating hotel.

Light stuck on green

NEWS a developer at Mount Stuart had been fined around a quarter of a million dollars would be seen as pretty fair. But we see that amendments to the Land Use and Planning Approvals Act mean he can still pay his fine and build his townhouses. No longer will he have to wait 10 years as the crucial part of the deterrent.

The green light is stuck permanently on go for the legion of developers who will knock down anything on a large site and wear the cost as part of the development. Once again, we see the very fabric of our heritage being put at risk. There is no long-term benefit to anyone here, save developers who are realising that Hobart is a great rental market, with new government regulations that lean towards helping them on their merry way to wreck it for its residents. If you think a developer wouldn’t go in with the bulldozers and brazenly knock down a lovely 19th-cen- A new way to have your say themercury.com.au readers have a new way to have their say. It’s free to use, just register and have your say. For more details and to register, visit the website. tury sandstone building at Battery Point to build dozens of flats on the site, think again. It happened in the ’70s. There is far more money at stake today. I hope that once again, such illegal actions will result in public pressure to preserve our heritage. Come on Labor Party, what would you do? And Government, are you listening to your voters? Repeal this unsavoury legislation.

Exasperation

THE numerous irate letters from increasingly frustrated residents of Clarence continue to pour in (Letters, December 4). The common theme is one of exasperated anger at the lack of transparency, plus the seeming indifference and lack of listening skills by many of their elected representatives. This attitude towards concerns regarding inappropriate development would appear to be increasingly rife, and indeed the norm among local and state representatives. It is simply not acceptable that people elected into positions of power and authority can simply turn round and ignore the concerns of those ratepayers and the populace who voted for them in the first place. Developments such as those proposed for Kangaroo Bay, and numerous others now in the pipeline, are inappropriate and unsuitable for this heritage island state.

Until the powers-that-be start understanding and working with the community, we are in a cleft stick. The communities will not give up and those in state and local government had better start listening and acting on those concerns.

Beware handfish

MESSAGE to any developers of the proposal for a floating hotel at the Regatta Grounds: beware the spotted handfish.

Diligent disinfecting

GOOD to see Ovation of the Seas disinfecting the ship. I trust the same diligence was applied to public toilet facilities around Hobart after they departed.

Cricket out of sync

WHY does Channel 9 promote live broadcast of the cricket when they are on average 15 seconds behind ABC radio (not live!) Hard to watch as the ABC radio broadcast provides the result before the ball is even bowled on the telly. Used to be able to put on the telly and listen to ABC in sync with the cricket, Nine should give us live cricket not delayed cricket.

Fresh germs

I HAVE wondered why, after the flu season is well passed and we are in to December, another cold/flu virus seems to arrive. Eureka! Tourism. The arrival of shiploads of people, some carrying the endemic flu-like bugs that live aboard cruise ships. The price we pay for tourism isn’t just in infrastructure pressure.