Electric cars not green

‘‘ MY RATES BARELY CHANGED FOR THE FIRST 10 YEARS OF HOME OWNERSHIP FOR THE SAME, IF NOT BETTER, SERVICES...

GO GREEN. Save our environment. Buy an electric car.

Now, wait a minute. Let’s look at some facts.

A recent European report stated that the manufacturer of lithium ion batteries is a major source of additional CO2. Just manufacturing a 100kwh battery for a Telsa car creates 17.5 tonnes of CO2, which is more than would be produced by a petrol fuelled vehicle driven almost 100,000km. These batteries need regular replacement and are expensive. Pollution to make them and pollution to dispose of them.

Hybrid cars-two engines, more pollution and more expense.

If we have as many electric cars wanting a recharge as advocates plan, then we will need all those coal-fired power stations brought back into action. Until electric cars can self-charge, by say making the entire bodywork a solar collector, or some other method, plus the development of batteries that are efficient enough to power the vehicle for all-night driving, then they will save nothing emission-wise. It’s all a con.

ALAN BAINES, Toowoomba

HIGHER RATES

WHO decided that we must have huge increases in rates every year? Beattie’s council amalgamation was supposed to reduce costs.

Why this doubling of emergency services levies, since we also pay for this in our home insurance? What happens to the massive amount of stamp duty the state government gets from house sales?

My rates barely changed for the first 10 years of home ownership for the same, if not better, services, and we had access to aldermen who looked after our ward.

We are being priced out of house and home with ever increasing costs of maintenance, insurance etc, while ratepayers pay for all the expensive parks, library and facilities for everyone to use.

My garbage bin contents are minuscule and it takes many weeks to fill the recycling bin and I won’t even mention the now expensive water which used to cost me less than $40 a year.

As we slide into socialism and no private ownership, will we have to sell our homes to pay for our care in old age? No home for children to inherit means ever increasing homelessness. D. STACK, Toowoomba

COUNCIL OUT OF TOUCH

I HAVE followed with great interest recent articles about the plight of the homeless in Toowoomba. I was horrified to read recently that the council demanded the Wilsonton Progress Association pay almost $600 to the council for a food licence just so they could continue to host a free barbecue for the homeless two nights a week from Clewley Park.

Has this council totally lost the plot? We have councillors taking junkets all over the world and wasting ratepayers’ money on frivolous courses, but they can’t afford to waive a fee of $600 to a volunteer organisation feeding the homeless? What a disgrace.

I was then very heartened to read that a local town planning firm Precinct Urban Planning had stepped up to not only pay the council fee but also to pledge funding for this incredible organisation moving forward.

Well done to the private sector in Toowoomba, I say. The council should have waived this fee and it would not have cost anything other than some minor revenue forgone.

Instead community groups like this have had to turn to the private sector which thankfully has a much bigger heart and conscience that our out-oftouch council.

Despite all of this, our PR-savvy mayor is never one to miss an opportunity even if the council should be on the end of a brickbat for this disgraceful episode.

Mayor Antonio shows up to hand out food last week and tells us he understands the homeless problem because he listened to the stories of the homeless people attending and because his council has moved on more people this year than last year.

This council has an attitude problem. Sapping the resources of volunteer organisations feeding the homeless and then boasting about moving more of them on while taking the opportunity for a publicity grab.

Hollow words and crocodile tears do nothing to help the homeless. If you are not interested in offering genuine help, council, then step aside and leave it to others in our community who obviously are much more genuinely interested in doing so.

RUTH TRANTER, Mt Lofty