Recent dog attacks happen when council staff do NOT police dogs being off a leash, every day in the mall and on the Esplanade I witness this and cop abuse from lawbreaking selfish dog owners when I ask them to put their dog on a leash.
Sunday at 10am at Darook beach countless dogs are roaming free, photos above as evidence I took my grandkids home because there were too many dogs.
What is council doing to reduce the number of off-leash dogs in the Shire? By NOT policing this you are giving tacit approval and encouraging more people to run their dogs off-leash and more injuries will ensue. B Elliott
Clogged up Shire
Gaye Cameron's comments echo what many in the Shire experience (Leader August 12). Increased development, clogged roads, shadows cast by high buildings, increased population and limited parking around suburban shopping centres. The suburb most affected in particular is South Cronulla. We had a timely reminder on Sunday of what summer is for residents in Cronulla who might wish to go to Coles or Woolworths in Caringbah to Taren Point or other areas and wish to return home after 10am. Last Sunday a trip out to Taren Point at 11am took 10 minutes to go from Parramatta Street to the Kingsway via Wilbur Ave. At this time traffic on the Kingsway heading into Cronulla was already backed up to Swan St at Woolooware Station. The return trip from Taren Point at 12.20pm found traffic heading to Cronulla back onto Gannon's Rd(North) halfway along Woolooware golf course. Time to travel home to Parramatta St via Wilbur Ave took 30 minutes. I sat in the traffic to remind myself that people without local knowledge "just sit and wait". On arriving home I went for a walk and noticed on all corners around Ewos, Parramatta, Gerrale and Ingalara Sts cars were parked encroaching on the yellow lines. A handy $256 cop for the council and why - insufficient parking stations in Cronulla, and at most shopping centres in the Shire.
How much do the council benefit each weekend from visitors the the Shire who are not aware of the compulsory yellow line donation to council? Council - Forget the plan to upgrade Cronulla Mall and put the money into solving the traffic and parking problems. Why did the council not include a traffic and parking plan in the redevelopment planning two years ago for the mall upgrade? Doing work on the mall will only exacerbate the traffic problem in Cronulla and not to mention the developments scheduled to start around the CBD that will add approximately 500 Apartments with 750 residents cars and visitors cars In the next three years in an already bursting suburb. When was the last traffic survey done? In any 12 months, the figures would be well out of date. I fear the council motto is "All SHOW with NO GO". Michael Wolf, Cronulla
Widening of Highway
As a regular user of this section of road, I believe this is just an attempt by RMS to reduce their costs by eliminating the cost of the lane change every peak hour.
If they were genuine in their attempts to reduce pinch points during peak hour, they would start by widening any part of the road that pinches from three lanes down to two. Sections southbound through Kogarah then further south at Carlton approaching Carr's Park come to mind as bigger priorities. This road is about 30 years past its use-by date.
Build the damned tunnel. Peter McGuire, Woronora Heights
Vote them out
Ian Bryant from Barden Ridge wrote (Leader, September 23) about the deplorable state of our local and major roads and how they haven't, in the main, been enlarged/increased/upgraded for many years. Heathcote Road, the major thoroughfare from the east to the west of the Shire and further, as mentioned in a letter by Hans Stephens in the same Leader edition, is essentially the same as it was when built in the 1940s.
The volume of traffic is continually expanding. An extra lane here, traffic lights there, speed reductions everywhere, are essentially band-aid solutions to a much larger problem.
The Southern Expressway, through Miranda and Kirrawee, indicated on road maps over 40 years ago, is still a pipe-dream. When it is finally built, it will be a toll-road, not a freeway.
People may ask, "Why have we had this lack of action"? The answer is simple and was covered in a letter of mine a few weeks ago. While we have State and Federal parliamentarians sitting in very safe seats in The Shire, they have little incentive to push for more money to be spent in their electorates!! A bit of work will be done here and there so that a ribbon can be cut, probably just before an election. While residents of The Shire continually vote for these politicians, they do not and will not feel threatened by the possibility of losing their seats. Why would they push their governments to spend money here? They'll get re-elected anyway!!
Shire residents need to wake-up to the fact that the answer to adequate local spending on roads (and other infrastructure) is political action. Write to or phone your local member of State and Federal parliament and let them know what YOU think about their inaction!! Maybe then, that local member will start to realise that his/her very safe seat could be in jeopardy!! Kevin Gowen,Caringbah
More support for Shire museum
It is good to see Lynette Richards' support for a Sutherland Shire Museum. We should have a permanent, professionally-run museum. This will help inform residents and visitors about our local history, indigenous heritage, and, I hope, our natural heritage too. There are already many items that need to be preserved for the benefit of future generations. This need will only grow as the year's pass. Heathcote Hall is privately owned. While it deserves protection and adaptive reuse, a shire museum will have more success if it is part of an existing (and more centrally-located) cultural precinct like Hazlehurst Regional Art Gallery. It will probably need additional offsite storage for some items. Aside from a permanent collection, it could host thematic exhibitions, perhaps including objects and artworks lent by larger national institutions or private individuals. This will ensure return visits by locals and by others beyond the Shire. It will also need a professional curator, proper security and a budget for future acquisitions when items of local significance come on the market or require conservation. Let's hope that our new mayor, Cr Steve Simpson, will look at this with fresh eyes. Ignoring this need will be like surrendering to a form of collective Alzheimer's. Dr Edward Duyker, Sylvania-Southgate
