Deport rapist
I READ with anger and outrage the article regarding Sudanese-born Christo Brown being sentenced to eight years’ jail for the attack and rape of a 76-year-old woman in her own home ( Saturday Mercury, September 29).
Blind to aesthetics
THANK you to Stephen Jeffery for his letter regarding the siting of the toilet at Alonnah, which draws attention to the lack of sensitivity to this beautiful state by the officers and councillors in local government ( Mercury, September 27). Myself and supporters tried desperately to have this toilet block sited elsewhere, giving many sound environmental reasons as well as the poor use of such a lovely site. It went ahead, regardless of the availability of less intrusive sites nearby. Mr Jeffrey’s letter gives me great hope that some of these people in positions to make a difference may read it and be more aware and not blind to the aesthetics in the decisions they are trusted to make.
Use for cable car
OVER a convivial Sunday lunch where conversation followed the Three Ts formula (typical, topical and Tasmanian), our group bantered about the proposed cable car, then moved on to bemoaning the lack of future-focused infrastructure planning and the increasing gridlock of traffic movement in Hobart.
In less time than it takes to finish off a good bottle of Tassie wine, we had workshopped the solution. Why not start the proposed cable car at the top of Collins St and follow the Hobart Rivulet track up to Cascades, then branch off to the left and right, thus providing transport options to Hobart’s southern and northern areas?
What could be more cost efficient, energy savvy, commuter friendly and tourist enticing than floating over Hobart’s wooded back hills, with strategic stopping points along the journey, ending at transport hubs in Kingston or Glenorchy?
There would be no extra lanes added to roads, traffic pile ups, noise pollution, reliance on fossil fuels, road rage or city parking issues. Is it simplistic or elegantly simple? It’s certainly not as complex as $900 million underpasses and other options.
Maybe the real issue is that this idea is not complex enough so can’t be undermined by political obfuscation, a low level of commitment and lack of imagination — an accusation which would never apply to our Sunday lunches!