Not all dogs and their people are unsociable

Please don't put all dogs in the same category as the dogs that have recently attacked in Cronulla. Yes there are a lot of dog owners in the Sutherland Shire, and 99 per cent of us are responsible with them in public, so please do not ruin outings out with our dogs due to the negligence of these few dog owners that did not have control of their dogs.

The Sutherland Shire is already well behind other areas of Sydney in regards to being dog friendly. The ratio of dogs to off-leash parks in this area is woeful, and a lot of councils in other parts of Sydney even have dog-friendly pubs. If anything we need to catch up, not go backwards with letting our dogs have a bit of freedom, they live for outings with their families.

Lauren Wilson,

Caringbah

I have lived beside Shelley Park for more than 16 years.

During the warmer months, there have been people camping in the park and they have no respect for the local residents. If they don't camp they come very early in the morning and if they are asked to keep the noise down it gets worse. The ocean creatures have no chances. Every living creature is taken and eaten. Then, of course, is the parking problem.

It will never improve unless decisions are made concerning visitors to the area. The locals believe it is a waste of time saying anything because they are ignored.

Anthony Smith,

Cronulla

Tony Abbott has gone. Donald Trump has gone. Craig Kelly is next.

Matt Kean - would you like a place in Federal Parliament? It would be a change for the seat of Hughes to have a representative who believes in science and rationality.

James Moule,

Woronora Heights

I live in a quiet street in Caringbah near Low-Cost Housing. The residents there are quiet, polite and courteous. Over the last three months, their Residents only sign has been dug...out of cement...and left lying on the footpath...this was followed by the No Parking sign some weeks later...also dug up from cement! Then last night the colourbond fence was kicked entirely in. I am astonished that some people feel that it is fun to destroy other's environments without any regard to the people who live there quietly and responsibly and no other villa complex in the street was touched!

K.A,

Caringbah

Between 1961 and 1980, Sutherland Shire Council named a total of twenty-eight avenues, streets, drives, places and crescents in Bonnet Bay after U.S. Presidents.

They range chronologically from the great George Washington to the not-so-great Richard Milhous Nixon. It is time for an update. Streets might be in short supply, but perhaps we could find a speed hump somewhere in the Shire that we could name the Trump Hump.

Edward Duyker,

Sylvania

Whilst I support the right of mountain bikers to pursue their sport for health, fitness and competition, it has been quite upsetting to see firsthand, as an avid bushwalker, the extreme amounts of damage caused by their activities in large amounts of protected bushland in the Shire. From Darook Park Cronulla to Royal National Park at Loftus and Greys Point and Prince Edward Park Woronora, Mountain Bikers are carving new tracks in protected bushland. Their activities extend from carving new trails (creating erosion) and destroying vegetation, to moving and damaging bushrock and digging soil out to create ramps. It seems to be that Council and National Park rangers are turning a blind eye to this wilful vandalism of our beautiful natural heritage that we live in here in the Shire. Over the years dumping rubbish and authorities have quite successfully addressed illegal removal of bushrock, it seems now that this problem, which if anything is even more damaging to bushland, needs to be effectively addressed and remedied.

Stephen Atkinson,

Sutherland

To all the bystanders, ambulance personal, police and staff at St George Hospital. A big thank you for your help when I fell off my pushbike and smashed my bike helmet at the Bowling Club roundabout at Engadine on Monday 1/11. Special thanks to Garry for returning my bike to my home. We live in a great community.

Brian Abbott,

Engadine

The idea of a Religious Freedom Bill appeals to me, but does it go far enough?

For the efficient operation of this new law, I would like to see all the religious institutions claiming a religious exemption from civil law, to come down from their metaphorical or figurative mountain, Moses like, with a full list of the rights and exemptions claimed by their faith, for publication, and to be deposited as a public record, presumably after consultation with their proprietary deity or other traditions.

These 'rights' could be lodged, and enforced by a new government department, to ensure that all newly legal faith-based exemptions could be on the public record, and so that potential believers and new converts alike could have a 'Compare the Market,' type form guide to what is included in all prospective faith choices, and consumer rights extended to the spiritual market.

What other courses of action should be blessed with success?

I wish you well in all things.

Garry P Dalrymple

EARLWOOD

craig.thomson@austcommunitymedia.com.au