I hope to raise awareness which may assist other community members in avoiding the stress of receiving a hefty penalty notice for parking within the 'free' two hour period at the newly converted ticketed Georges River Council operated car park, located at Macmahon St, Hurstville.
This car park formerly offered three hours of free parking (no ticket required).
The signage and instructions are ambiguous and somewhat challenging to navigate. The instructions on the face of the ticket machine state that payment can be made by coins (no mention of accepted denominations). However, the slots don't appear to accept any coins (misleading). Imagine the challenges faced by the elderly and/or individuals from non-English speaking backgrounds. Some elderly people do not possess a credit/debit card. Perhaps the ambiguity is intentional, serving as a "cash-cow" for council during this COVID period. It would be interesting to investigate the number of penalty notices issued for this particular 'offence' at this location to date.
The Leader published an article on 31 January 2019 entitled '10-MINUTE GRACE PERIOD ON TIMED PARKING NOW IN OPERATION' where the then Treasurer, Dominic Perrottet, was pushing for "a common-sense approach to parking penalties that don't impact road safety". I have written to his office regarding this issue and await a reply. In his words, "Fines should be used as deterrents, not a license to print money, and I encourage more councils and authorities to come on board and do the right thing by their communities." Penelope Johnstone, Lugarno
Overdevelopment of the Tom Uglys bridge peninsula
It was only after Smiths Seafood closed down that we were alerted to the site's development into a seven-story apartment block, leaving no time to have our say as residents. I think we can all agree that a seven-story apartment block does not belong on that peninsula as it is an iconic strip of land visible by a lot of the surrounding foreshore along the Georges River. Why are the residents not adequately informed? When will the council seriously look at the topography of the existing area rather than its position on the Princes Highway, which conveniently gives it the appropriate zoning for such monstrosities to be built? The peninsula from Townson st to the bridge should be reconsidered for its height restrictions. Just because something can be built there does not mean it should be built. This applies to a lot of development happening across the state. Very disappointed in the lack of consideration to the surrounding residents from the council. Marcus Taylor, Blakehurst
Removal of ATM at Ramsgate Beach
It is very disappointing that the St George Bank has decided to remove their ATM from the shopping centre in Ramsgate Beach.
A few years ago the branch was closed. Later the Westpac ( affiliated with St George) located on Rocky Point Road, Ramsgate was also closed ( along with their ATM ).
Are the Managers of St George Bank aiming to totally upset and inconvenience their customers? Peter Gannon, Ramsgate
Confronting a silent serial killer
What put type 2 diabetes into clear focus for me besides your article "Confronting a silent killer" was a medical practitioner recently claiming that a person's blood volume could only safely carry two teaspoons of glucose, comparing it with the twenty-six teaspoons of glucose that is supplied by a possible breakfast. The kidneys and liver than have to metabolise or excrete the excess the overloaded pancreas can't, which could be an analogy for excess alcohol consumption and liver disease.
Not even the Benedictine order could abstain from the excessive quantities of glucose producing carbohydrates and sugar provided by so-called healthy food at fast-food chains, eateries, on supermarket shelves, and bombarded by mass media. There is a limit to the bad influence that the average person can physically and emotionally handle or deny, a clear responsibility of public health officials. R Piech, Sans Souci
Trolley Dumping
Interestingly, the supermarkets will be fined for trolleys left in the community. So who will pay for the fine? It will be anyone that buys groceries - the cost will be passed on through higher grocery prices. How about focusing on the root cause, shoppers stealing trolleys and dumping them. They are littering and stealing. Why should we pay for their laziness through higher grocery prices? The law should focus on the individuals dumping the trolley and be charging them $660. All this new law does is encourage the supermarket to clean up after others quicker. It doesn't do anything to stop the problem. If someone wants to take one and the supermarket is ok with that, they should take it back. Bill Wright
