We’re made to feel criminal for trying to keep our gardens alive
The Editor,
The absolute gall of Dubbo mayor Ben Shields and CEO Michael Mcmahon to track our water use with smart meters is totalitarianism at its worst.
These people should have been monitoring water levels and inflows to Burrendong Dam and insisting Water NSW halt irrigation and environmental releases to ensure adequate supplies were maintained for the towns.
The council didn’t do its job and now wants to make criminals out of us for trying to keep our gardens alive.
The implementation of water restrictions might have been acceptable had council come out and said it would do everything in its power to ensure Water NSW did not cause this situation again.
Water NSW is totally responsible for the restrictions currently imposed on all towns that draw water from Burrendong.
The Dam was full three years ago. That volume of water should have lasted us for many years, with no restrictions, but Water NSW gave the bulk of it to irrigators and environmentalists.
Water NSW got us into to this mess and won’t even commit to preventing it from happening again. There’s no word from Water NSW saying it’s reviewing its water release policy to ensure towns get priority over irrigators and environmentalists in future.
No word from the Dubbo MP Dugald Saunders, or the NSW Government for that matter, who spent last week touring the area. No advice from them, saying they will ensure Water NSW looks after the towns in future instead of irrigators.
The council wants to encourage people to move from the city to the bush; well who’d want to come and live in a desolate dustbowl with buckets in your shower to try and maintain a garden?
The NSW Government, Water NSW and Dubbo Regional Council are jointly responsible for this totally preventable town-water shortage debacle.
The Council says it can’t afford to let its green spaces die, so they are using recycled water to keep them alive. Well that’s fair enough, but many Dubbo ratepayers have made large investments in their gardens and they can’t afford to let them die either, but they’ve got no choice.
Those people who might have inadvertently gone over their allocation in their attempts to save their gardens from extinction are now threatened with fines and smart meter monitoring to make sure they comply.
All we can do is vote these people out first chance we get and try to get representatives in there that will work for the good of the people.
Steve Hodder, Dubbo
The Editor,
Just wanting to express my severe disappointment at the proposal to remove the Rawsonville bridge.
Government bodies continue to show their complete disregard for the heritage of this state in failing to maintain and protect those historic places that they own, which the community has deemed significant and want to keep.
Why even bother having a heritage system if it’s so easy to demolish a heritage item?
Once we lose these magnificent structures they are gone forever, to be replaced with yet another banal concrete bridge.
At the very least they could keep the bridge in its original location with an adjoining concrete bridge on a realigned road, though this is a far poorer option compared to simply maintaining it in its currently satisfactory condition.
I know I’ll be lying down in front of the bulldozers, who will join me?
Peter, Dubbo
(full name provided)
The Editor,
Re: “Could Dubbo be the new Vegas?”, Cr John Ryan’s proposal for a Dubbo casino, Dubbo Photo News, November 28.
I am strongly opposed to this idea. Your article says it “could bring economic benefits for our region”, but at what social cost.
My experience with gambling is that the poorer members of the community end up spending more of their money on such activities.
Many people would like to see poker machines removed from hotels. This was the policy of the Greens in Tasmania a few years ago.
There are enough opportunities to gamble on the horses, dogs, footy, etc.
Chris, Dubbo
(full name provided)