Letter of the Week

Have strong opinions, write in an engaging way? You could win our Letter of the Week, and with it a book from our friends and sponsors, the publishers HarperCollins. This month’s book prize is Cross her Heart by Sarah Pinborough. Some secrets are worth dying for – the mind-blowing thriller from the author of the bestselling Behind Her Eyes.

DEAR GCB,

I have a business located in northern Mermaid Beach and already businesses around me are vacating the area citing the impending doom brought on by the tram line coming through (and the Comm Games debacle ).

It will take away our limited car parking, cut off our customers’ access during the build and bring the same misery that most other businesses to our north have suffered.

I watch the buses in the already constructed (and totally under utilised) bus lane go past never more than half full. Surely if the area needs more public transport in the future a couple of more buses every hour should suffice?

So what is the point of this tram line building madness?

I’m guessing that it will help a few property owners and developers get taller high rises going up to the detriment of the locals and little else for the community.

It will just add more traffic lights, increase difficulty in getting anywhere in a vehicle and leave a bunch of broken dreams and empty shops (which will then be bought up by some Chinese consortium) ...

So what then? We’ll get more high rises on top of the ones that no one living here wants!

So it will be goodbye forever to the peaceful residential low rise suburb that everyone moved here for and hello to the disaster to the northern Gold Coast.

It wouldn’t hurt for all the relative parties to take a breath and have a good, hard look at what will happen to what already is an awesome place to live and work before it is lost forever to greed and we have another Paradise Lost! STUART SMITH, MERMAID BEACH

GOLD Coast residents are all too familiar with the transport issues that plague the region – the city’s main arterials are congested on a daily basis and the public transport system is not adequate.

In the last three years, Queensland Budget funding for transport and roads has dropped to the lowest level in a more than a decade.

The State Government must address this and make transport infrastructure and services a priority.

Anyone who commutes to Brisbane or drives the M1 regularly knows just how congested it can get. Upgrading the Pacific Motorway to six lanes from Varsity Lakes and Tugun and to eight lanes from Gateway Motorway to Loganholme will be critical in improving safety, capacity and productivity.

We also need to see the Queensland Government progress the IRTC which will be an alternative for the M1 from Stapylton-Jacobs Well Rd to Nerang-Broadbeach Rd.

It’s also critical we get the Gold Coast light rail extended to Coolangatta and the airport. That will give residents in the south an effective public transport option.

We need a road system that works for all Queenslanders and safer roads lead to less crashes and better outcomes.

Gold Coast residents deserve to have good quality roads and a transport system that also drives productivity and enables economic growth. LUCINDA ROSS, RACQ

I FEEL for owners of closing restaurants but when will we realise there are too many cafes and restaurants? Tourism can’t be based on eating. MATTHEW SENYARD, GOLD COAST

THERE have been a number of recent media reports concerned with the Google Android phones tracking people’s location and even what floor they are on in a shopping centre.

This data is then used for targeted ads, sych as, if you are in a hamburger joint you probably need ads for diet products.

There are other potential uses including crime fighting. If you have a known drug dealer’s phone number then you can assume that anyone who stops at the same location is likely to be buying drugs or a police officer, hopefully not both, and a reoccurance would suggest a follow-up.

The location changes of a car driver over a specific distance will give speed and the potential for fines which would pay for the system and possibly a nice profit. There are many other possibilities to consider.

My own life however is moderately boring so you can remove me from the data collection! DENNIS FITZGERALD, BOX HILL