Freedom to walk freely through oval denied

Large unsightly barriers have barred my freedom to access the soccer ovals, I am being discriminated against because I am old  or not an elite athlete and unable to join a soccer club.

The Kirrawee club and the Sutherland Shire Football Association has exclusively made public lands into their own country club.

As Sutherland Shire Council has deemed it a precedent of law that public lands, parks, fields, beaches,  may have random balls flying about, then all fields will have to have these 6 foot high fences erected to protect the public from balls.  

It won’t matter that you can’t access these public areas freely even though your taxes pay for them, rather you will be kept safe from balls.

The Sutherland Shire Football association spectators are at great risk of being hit by a random flying ball and therefore that constitutes a reason to fully double fence every field  and provide protective safety equipment and head helmets for the soccer players, cricket players etc to protect them from balls.

It appears that there are too many balls in Sutherland Shire Council and Kirrawee soccer clubs and that they need to start using their heads instead of worrying about there balls.

Take down the barriers,  charge less rates and return public lands to the public and let the balls be free.

Tracey Chouvin, Kirrawee

Re ‘‘Stop rubbishing the shire’’ (Leader, February 17)

I do feel that the majority of rubbish dumping would be reduced if Sutherland Council were to return to bi-annual collections.

Everyone would then be able to dispose of there rubbish legally. Collection by appointment is not always  practical.

The so called scavengers remove a great deal of the products before collection, thus leaving  less for council collection.

Please bring back the twice yearly collections.

Julie Sellers, Woolooware

I was very happy for Andrew Penhall (‘‘Jet-skis for kids’’, Your View, February 3) that he has found his Utopian jet ski paradise at Bonnievale. 

Unfortunately Andrew your experience is very rare. 

For many other recreational waterways users, the term “responsible jet-skier” is akin to Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny – people talk about them but no one has seen them. 

On a recent Sunday at least a dozen jet-skis went past my residence, not one of them at less than 30 knots in an 8 knot zone. 

Some were much faster than this – being driven by children.  As for regulations regarding no towing and distances from swimmers or paddlers, these might as well not exist. 

When one these hoons narrowly missed a swimmer his reply was “sorry, I didn’t see her”.

When I pointed out that was possibly because he was doing five times the speed limit he gave me the finger and took off at high speed, almost collecting a kayaker. 

This behaviour is repeated week after week on the Woronora and Georges Rivers.  Speak to any Maritime Safety Officer, as I do on a regular basis, and they will tell you that jet-skis cause the vast majority of their problems. 

A few bad apples ruining it for the majority? Not in my experience Andrew. 

John Thompson, Woronora

How sad that the rare American corn snake found stuck in a home at Miranda (Leader, January 27) had to be destroyed, simply because they are not allowed to be owned in Australia.  

Couldn’t it simply have been given to  Taronga Zoo? They have plenty of animals non-indigenous to this country.

Jean Toole, Miranda

David Ireland, environmental warrior and Australian icon has released his first book, The Wildlife Man (Leader, February 10).

An engrossing journey it traces a difficult start through a winding life of triumphs, failures, and excitement.

It is permeated with the ever present, overriding dangers and life threating situations created by an adventurer who constantly and assiduously seeks to challenge the boundaries.

His enquiring mind, innovative technical expertise, great skill, and extraordinary bravery, combine to create an individual who has an obvious love of the outdoors and all the creatures who inhabit them.

A wonderful read, it is entertaining and highly educational, I wish David well. The book deserves to be a best seller.

It makes the average person’s life seem somewhat mundane.

Warwick Kent, Cronulla South

In 1770 botanist Joseph Banks was on the ship Endeavour when it entered a shallow harbour. 

As he explored the foreshores he found it rich in a variety of flora and named it Botany Bay. A short time later a magnificent deep water harbour was discovered nearby (now Port Jackson or Sydney Harbour).

Over the last two centuries foreshore constructions around Botany Bay include a massive cargo port using sand dredged from the bay, airport with runway, houses, highrise structures on playing fields, MacMansions, sewer works, defunct desalination plant, factories, concrete noise walls, flattened sand dunes. 

The idyllic Boat Harbour precinct on Kurnell peninsular is a rare remaining heritage symbol. 

A recent proposal (Leader, February 10) convert this into developer $2 billion apartments, multi-storey buildings with resorts, hotels, business park would destroy a heritage remnant of irreplaceable history.

 J Brett, Miranda

Re ‘’Woolies hits back’’ (Leader, February 24). Let’s hope they will fix the transport before this large development!

Nicola Pradella 

More employment for shire that is great. Janelle Hunter