Koolewong

Feedback

1/09/2011: Email from Pete

Firstly, I would like to congratulate you on the fantastic works you do with the local community. Great to see such passion! My wife, daughter and I have recently moved from Sydney to the Coast, and have been up here a year now, but in Point Clare only a few months (March 2011). We love the local area so much. People are super friendly, and willing to help each other. For your reference, and for the perspective of a newcomer to the area, I have noticed a few “challenges” that may or may-not have been on your radar.
1.The lack of payment options outside manned hours at Pt Clare rail station. EFTPOS is available during the manned hours only (Mon-Fri 6 am noon), and the ticket machine don’t accept notes or cards. This makes it particularly tricky to utilise this station outside those hours, unless you happen to have a pocket full if change. My wife and I caught the train to Central for a dinner the other weekend ($28 return for the 2 tickets), and we had to ask the nice gentleman in the bottle shop to give us a heap of change. Obviously not very well thought thru by the City Rail people. Even having 1 of the 2 machines being the slightly better model would help at least take a credit card payment for those without so much change. I have also addressed this directly with City Rail, who tell me it is part of their “continuous improvement”, but no timeline yet.
2.Council Rates. Everyone pays them, and everyone thinks they are too high. But paying a fee for “Kerb and guttering”, when most of Point Clare off Brisbane Water Drive doesn’t have it, is pretty silly. I am told by neighbours that it has been charged for many years on their rates, but they have never heard of the council actually starting on a local project to implement. Not a real issue of whether they are installed or not (I don’t mind not having them, adds to the local casual feeling), just have an issue if ratepayers are charged for something we don’t have nor we aren’t likely to get anytime soon.
Minus those couple annoyances, I am really chuffed to be living in such a fantastic part of the coast!
Cheers, Pete

29/06/2011: Email from Peter McDonell re Newsletter & Webpage

Dear Hon Secretary/President Thanks for the link to the latest Munities (I also read the minutes at the same location ). A couple of comments: I noted the statement under General Business – NEWSLETTER “We are going to apply for the grant that is offered by the council for printing and will stick within their guidelines for no advertising and talking about them.” This seems to indicate that the Council have a condition in their support that they not be mentioned in the newsletter, or is that they are just not to be criticised? If the latter surely that should not be acceptable to the Association. If a situation arises that the council should be criticised then so be it, but the Association should not accept any restraint on such behaviour. If I have misread the comment I would appreciate clarification. May I also support the comments under Feedback, on the web site, made by Peter Thompson re Aldi not consenting to providing easy parking access for the pharmacy. Aldi spent a lot of money to provide parking for their own premises and should not be criticised for not providing public parking for their retail neighbours. May I also suggest you pursue savings to be made by asking Association members whether they would be happy to receive all communications via email and web links (unless this has already been done). Full text can be found by clicking on this link

9/06/2011: Letter from Margaret Alexander re the Marina Proposal

THE PRESIDENT. Dear Mr. Fearon, As a member of the above Assoc & a resident of Koolewong I would like to formally object & oppose, the building of the proposed new Marina in Murphy's Bay. The Boathouse Restaurant is built on reclaimed land & I seriously wonder, where car parking for a 50 berth MARINA will go. I commend the hard working committee for their achievements, especially the "rejuvenated" GOODAYWANG RESERVE & the new DINGHY RACK at KOOLEWONG. Yours Sincerely Margaret Alexander.

15/05/2011: Email from Peter Thompson re Point Clare Pharmacy - Aldi Access

Good Morning,

I read with interest your article on the problematic access to the Point Clare Pharmacy at 61 Brisbane Water Drive.

In one respect, I think you are possibly approaching the problem [and indeed there is one] from the wrong end. Clearly Aldi could easily give consent to the proposed access you describe, but this would not be in Aldi's best interests as pharmacy customers would use their parking facilities. In this aspect, I suggest that community interest and goodwill go only so far, and to pursue this would be pointless and naive.

The real villain in this matter as I understand it is the RTA [or the Council] who did not keep the undertaking to the pharmacy during the Aldi-related road works, which guaranteed the pharmacy the same amount of kerbside parking as they had in the first place. The issue was further made worse by the relocation of the bus stop.

It is almost as if there was a minor conspiracy to make the existence of the pharmacy [which by the way was there first!] untenable.

David Missak has made an enormous investment in his pharmacy,

I believe and recommend that the matter be taken up very seriously with the local NSW member, for some remedial action to be taken. The State Govt are really keen to correct all ills, [?] so how about they start on this one. If this does not meet with success I suggest a well framed and open letter to the Minister outlining all the known circumstances, and formally requesting review of the traffic arrangements of this particular area.

David Missak has suffered serious wrong here, and he is due for recompense and damages to his business. Letters to the media would also help expand public awareness to this problem. I'd be happy to add to this as well.

I myself would prefer to use his pharmacy, but it is just too inconvenient, and I am sure many others would agree.

I wish your organisation and indeed David every success in resolving this issue.

With regards,

Peter Thompson