However, during a recent trip to Melbourne I was concerned at the number of big trucks pounding up and down the highway. While I agree that truck drivers do a very important job, just by sheer weight of numbers those trucks are a menace. I'm told only 1 per cent of the freight travelling between Sydney and Melbourne goes by rail. This needs to change.

As I have said before, rail transport is between three and nine times more fuel efficient than road so why is so much freight going by road?

I was led to believe that with privatisation and open access rail transport would become more efficient and competitive. The reverse seems to be the case; otherwise more freight would be going by rail. Clearly, more needs to be done to get freight back to where it belongs aboard trains. This will be critical if we are to make any sort of change to greenhouse gas emissions.

I THINK Sophie Tanchev (Letters, 15/8), raises a number of salient points with planning processes in the region. Quite a few of these mirror my experiences with Lake Macquarie council over objections to a building height. Initially I received no response to emails to a planner and also the mayor. I also made four shopfront visits. After two months, a planner spoke with me and asked me to resend the letters that he hadn't seen. The only response had been from a ward councillor.

I have not yet seen any action taken, so I have petitioned their chief executive as suggested by the NSW Ombudsman's Office. I find it hard to believe that we live in any kind of democracy. Dysfunction and delay persists from local government upward.

NEWCASTLE has an addition to its why-didn't-they-think collection. We already have the denuded Foreshore Park, the purposeless railway station, the space-wasting university building, the traffic-stopping tram and the sky-scraping stacks of flats.

Now, we have the tool shed.

Hop on down to Harbour Square beside Rydges and you will see the latest feature, the pump house for the recently renovated fountain. When I realised it wasn't just a tool shed on the steps and was there to stay, I rang the Hunter and Central Coast Development Corporation to complain. A representative threatened to call in the professional graffitists to make the monstrosity even more obvious.

May I suggest a solution? Build a plinth nearby on the square to hold a statue and hide the pump inside it. That way the kiddies can squeal with delight as they play in the random and now colourful squirts and we can do away with the eyesore.

LABOR frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon offered to co-chair the Friends of Coal Exports group ('Friends of coal group 'childish'', Newcastle Herald 3/8). It would be more visionary if they grouped as friends of coal workers.

Coal is dying. Unless there's significant action now, once the big mining companies and their feeder industries pull up stumps the Hunter will be left with a large group of workers with skill sets no longer desirable. The big miners will leave towns and communities to look after themselves. Many will be struggling to survive.

The only sane policy for the planet - and for the communities who rely on coal for their existence - is to take action now rather than bide for time that will never be given. Australia needs to invest resources into new industries to give coal communities the economic support they'll need to make the transition. Don't direct your energies into ensuring the profits of a dying industry, Mr Fitzgibbon, direct it towards the people who work there.

SCOTT Morrison launched an unprecedented attack on GetUp! with sledges too cheap and cynical to repeat.

It's the latest attack on those who challenge his government's agenda. I believe Morrison is weaponising the power of his office; exploiting the media-megaphone he has at his beck and call to attack thousands of GetUp members.

Yes, Scott Morrison is leader of the democratically-elected government, and he has a job to do. What it seems he doesn't like is being held accountable for his actions.

This government appears hell bent on silencing its critics. Whether it's prosecuting whistle-blowers, raiding journalists' homes and offices or attacking the independence of our ABC, it's becoming clear they'll come after anyone who dares to hold them to account. However, the public won't stay silent. We can show him that this is our democracy, and we'll never stop fighting for our rights.

SCRIBES Mati Morel and Don Owers (Letters, 19/8) portray climate change deniers as mindless, misguided creatures who dare to disagree with their views on the causes of climate change.

I believe many of the so-called climate deniers are in fact highly intelligent people who simply have a different point of view based on what they adduce from scientific research without those with opposing views telling them what to think.

In my opinion this brainwashing effect is already threatening to take over the minds of our children who take days off school to take part in street protests.

Perhaps the two self-proclaimed higher authorities might like to remember that the last federal election was won by a political party that recognises that climate change is real but human intervention is not the dominant catalyst. Thank God the voters have a mind of their own.

ONCE again, Supercars have advised Newcastle East residents that they will not be able to access their own homes during the fiasco unless they have permission. They insist on residents applying for a wristband so that they can count the residents in their grossly inflated attendance figures. I won't be letting a private company tell me that my family and I won't be able to access my home. I suspect that most other Novocastrians would feel the same in our shoes.