Local councils charging junior sporting bodies to use local sporting grounds; how long has this been going on and who approved it?

This is one of the many things we pay rates for - the use of public conveniences.

On top of that, the sheer greed in what they are being charged.

I would imagine in winter the grounds might need to be mowed every two or three weeks.

That would be about 12 times a season.

I imagine on a ride-on mower, one ground might take about three hours at most.

Even at an exorbitant rate of $100 per hour that would be $300 per time and $3600 per season.

Where does the rest go?

Surely it doesn't cost over $30,000 to erect and remove the goal posts each season?

Many clubs do their own line marking as required during the season.

In addition, somehow this club has raised another $40,000 to renovate the dressing sheds and storage facilities etc.

Now the council wants to determine the contractor and manage the project which will severely reduce the value the club receives for its money.

To me the council is double dipping on the club's funds instead of fulfilling their own responsibilities.

How much would councils raise if they increased rates by just $10 per year for maintenance of sporting grounds.

More than enough I would think.

All local councils following this policy should hang their heads in shame.

This is not the Australian way.

IN reply to Rob Smith, ("The day I told my kids: Dad's got the fight of his life on his hands", Opinion, 14/6).

I have just been diagnosed with prostate cancer and am about to undergo radiation treatment.

I would like to disagree with Rob as far as it only takes a blood test to diagnose.

My GP sent me for a blood test which returned as elevated, he then referred me to a neurologist and at that first consultation the specialist did indeed use a rubber glove, he then told me that:

At the next visit after the MRI I was informed that there were three "spots" on my prostate and although that indicated that there was a 50-70 per cent chance I had the cancer, a biopsy was the only 100 per cent way to confirm the diagnosis and the biopsy confirmed it.

I am not trying to be an alarmist and encourage men to initially have that blood test, but I hope that clears up any misunderstandings of how some prostate cancers are diagnosed.

I READ the article by Alex Morris, ("Coping with COVID", Weekender, 11/6), with great interest.

The article presented the experiences of the author and several other Novocastrians who had contracted COVID.

I tested positive to COVID on my return from London on June 1.

My wife tested positive the next day.

We both received the full doses of vaccination available before travelling.

I got my fourth shot (I am 65 with a history of respiratory issues) and my wife her third and we both got our flu shots.

We wore masks on the Etihad flights and whilst on public transport, but travelling in France and the UK they weren't used.

Our symptoms were mild; runny nose and cough for a day or two and some fatigue which may also have something to do with the busy six weeks away.

Whether we would have had the same experience if we had not been vaccinated I do not know.

But we were determined to give ourselves and those we come into contact with the best defences against COVID we could get.

So the masks went back on when we tested positive.

We quarantined.

Now we are fit and ready to catch up with family and friends.

WHO would have thought that selling the electricity generators and associated grid to the corporate world would have resulted in a threat to supply electricity to the nation if profits were, even slightly imperilled?

Who would have thought prices would more than triple in just a few years?

The Australian people used to own the generators and grid and the Liberals sold them to their robber baron mates.

What a failure, what a rort, what a travesty privatisation has proven to be.

Re-nationalise electricity, bring any profit back to Australians and throw these corporate carpetbaggers out on their ears.

THE current power supply problems in eastern Australia have been evident to most people for many years.

Political parties of all persuasions should stop blaming one another for the problems that they themselves have created.

The failure of a power system, consisting of an abundance of renewable supplies, should not come as a rude awakening to those cognisant with the problems experienced in countries such as the US, UK and Europe who have already gone down such a path.

There is no quick fix to our power supply problems so get used to it.

If the present policies on power generation, where coal and gas are started to be phased out as early as 2025, are not addressed as an engineering issue then we are destined to become a third world country with no power, no industries and no jobs.

REGARDING "O'Brien on a slippery slide", (Letters, 15/6).

Allen Small, well said!

Finally, let's talk about the elephant in the room - Adam O'Brien, the Knights coach.

At his disposal:

He has all the ingredients to do better. Every team gets injuries.

He seems out of answers and without the X-factor. There are some good candidates are out there now, let's let him go and move forward.

And for the record, Kalyn Ponga signed here as he was not offered the money anywhere else, and Wayne Bennett and other coaches would have held him more accountable for his woeful defence.

I AM so pleased the threat of power outages are occurring now ahead of the closure of Liddell Power Station next April and the planned closure of Eraring in 2025. In a time where we have become greater users of electricity than ever before, the system cannot cope now let alone after we lose generating capacity from these two coal- fired power stations. Now is the time to be building more coal-fired power plants. To the non believers, turn off their power now and let them freeze in the dark - other people should not have to suffer because of their fairytale beliefs

UTILITIES; electricity, water and gas are not luxuries, they are necessities to live. Therefore it is essential that they remain in government control and not in the hands of private enterprise where the price can be manipulated to make profits for large greedy companies. On the east coast of Australia all of these utilities have been sold off by mostly Liberal governments and so we have the current situation where our electricity and gas supplies are in crisis and consumers are paying the price.

I READ long ago about faster trains from the Central Coast and Newcastle to Sydney. About 1965 a fellow from the bush got a job in Sydney and moved to Gosford as accommodation was more reasonably priced. The peak hour express trains at the time took about one-and-a-half hours to get to Central from Gosford. He assumed that gradually the trip would get more streamlined and quicker. In 2022 the fast train to Sydney is about one hour and 35 minutes ... and if you check the Sydney Rail info, the average time to get to Sydney off peak is two hours and seven minutes.

KALYN Ponga, has to improve his suspect tackling technique, otherwise his tenure in the NRL will be curtailed due to an accumulation of head injuries.

SO, masks are no longer mandatory at airports. We've been talking about the wearing of masks, and how effective they are, then again why weren't we wearing them pre- pandemic? Colds and flus have been around for centuries. Could somebody put me straight?

WELL played John Cooper, (Short Takes, 15/6), even though I've heard jokes about my name AD nauseam (see what I did there?). Although I feel that yours was inaccurate, because if I do say so myself, I do not just simply use ad hominem arguments. In my letters, rather than just attack a person's character, I point out what I believe to be flaws in their logic, and why I believe that their way of thinking is incorrect. Just as I have in this letter.