letters to the editor

Eden-Monaro was blitzed by the $50,000 robocall pension-scare, dishonestly based on examples of a tiny fraction of well-off couples with at least $708,000 in assets on top of their family home, far greater assets than 90 per cent plus of all pensioners.

Just a repeat of the union "Mediscare" lies during the election.

Don’t always go to show you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.

Well the council have excelled again by paving paradise and putting up a parking lot. They certainly have a lot of style when it comes to town planning and beautification.

In about 2010 the council held community consultation sessions asking the people what they would like for the town centre area regarding beautification; the old Mobil site was high on the agenda as a newly acquired council public space and the people gave a clear message that green space was what they wanted. Council voted and resolved to green space the site for the benefit of the community which was welcomed by all, admittedly the resolution was worded for it to be until the bypass roadworks were commenced but this left the door open for it to be maintained after the works were completed in a reduced scale.

This is when all sorts of strange things took place on behalf of council particularly the non willingness of council management to carry out the resolution to actually green space the site and allow the public to use it. All of a sudden all sorts of restrictions and limitations were being thrown up to prevent this from happening like red herrings, resulting in the site being green spaced and fenced off for public protection for a four-year period; what a disgrace.

And now without public consultation the site has been hot mixed as a car park despite the fact it is only temporary because up to a half of it will have to be ripped up in the New Year and become part of the new roadway alignment through that intersection. Why on earth would the council waste the money to hot mix it at about eight times the cost of giving it a bitumen spray seal like they have done on the road out the back. Money to burn, wastage and God given ugliness, how nice that corner site with the new development just being built could have been with a nicely grassed area and a few trees and tables, could have made the town, instead we get a Big Yellow Taxi.

From July next year, the NSW government want every local council to collect a new land tax for them – the ‘Emergency Services Property Levy’ (ESPL). The new state government tax will be included on all council rate notices.

But Premier Baird won’t put the legislation to Parliament until the very last minute to avoid a community campaign against this new tax. Parliament doesn’t even sit again until next February.

The devil will be in the detail, and it is all being kept secret behind closed doors in Macquarie Street.

There could be different tax rates for commercial, residential and rural properties. Some groups are worried that the tax could shift costs from metropolitan or commercial classifications onto residential and rural landowners.

The government has refused to say if it will compensate councils for the cost of collecting the new tax, or if local ratepayers will also be hit with this extra cost.

The community and local councils have a right to know. After all, residents and small businesses will have to pay for it.