City's parking woes extend far beyond the hospital

I believe this problem can be squarely blamed on the councils involved, as well as our state governments. Just look in the streets outside all of the new unit developments; any unit with two bedrooms is likely to have two residents, which usually means two vehicles, yet the majority seem to have only one allocated car space. Therefore, our streets are being increasingly occupied by residents' vehicles. Where are the visitor spaces?

Unit living has become more popular in the last ten years, however parking requirements are inadequate. Try parking near the Civic Theatre for a matinee performance when the markets are on. Recently I retreated to Hamilton and hired a Uber vehicle to and from the theatre.

Public transport from many areas is inadequate for visiting the Newcastle CBD. Vehicles become the mainstay. People with mobility issues have nowhere to conveniently park in the Civic precinct, and I am somewhat bemused at the intentions to spend millions of dollars resurrecting the Victoria Theatre in Perkins Street. Just where are the many patrons able to park?

With Australians purchasing over one million new vehicles each year, I am sure there will be many of these parked permanently in our streets outside the many new multi-story residential developments.

In my view, the status quo is just not good enough from those in authority.

SIMON McCarthy's story about the Fogo Street sinkhole fallout ("From bowling greens to a field of weeds", Newcastle Herald 12/2), certainly touched many a nerve with many Wallsend residents. What an absolute disgrace this whole situation is.

The story stated that some long term members fear expulsion if they speak out against the management of Wallsend Diggers. The Mines Subsidence Board also appears silent. With the Jonathan Carroll photos accompanying the story, one can only imagine how the residents of Fogo Street feel about the view from their front doors. What really is sad in my opinion has been the lack of communication keeping the members and public informed as to what the hell is going on.

DID the person who wrote the Barnaby Joyce article ('Joyce blames prescription drugs and alcohol for 'big mistake'", Herald 13/2), have way too much fun?

They said questions had been raised about whether Barnaby, having fallen off a planter box, was fit "to sit on the front bench". They also quoted Katy Gallagher who said "it's a very unusual position for someone of that age to be in''. We should thank Barnaby for his poor choices. He's the fall guy, flat out providing material for journos, shock jocks, and social media junkies.

THE Liberals have every right to emphasise Labor's broken promise. Mr Albanese has failed to deliver the promised tax cuts. I'm concerned that Mr Dutton has placed too much emphasis on the 'broken promise' narrative; not enough focus has been given to the struggling families promised much-needed relief before a cliffhanger by election. No such support has been offered by Mr Dutton. Liberal constituents should be angered by the Labor broken promise, but they should also be concerned about the way Mr Dutton was so easily outmanoeuvred.

IT'S sad to see the remnants of Supercars, one of the greatest and more interesting things to ever happen to this city, being ripped out. East enders wanted it gone, got their way and I believe as a result they should foot the bill, not all the ratepayers.

PETER Sansom ("Durability is key for sustainability", Letters, 9/2): lithium-ion batteries are potentially 95 per cent recyclable, according to the CSIRO. The resources may be limited, but the known reserves of lithium are about 80 million tonnes. It can also be conserved by using other types of batteries for stationary storage. As for the expense of changing batteries, it should reduce with economies of scale. Let's face it, how often do engines get changed on old cars now? Treated properly as part of a solution, we should have resources to last for centuries.

THE news concerning the Taipan helicopters is bad enough to make one wonder about the procurement process, but the coverage of their disposal is even worse. When they are still in service elsewhere, why could they not be made operational? Seeing that the decision has been made to dismantle them, why is the carcass to be buried? Unless I am mistaken, it will take many years for them to break down and in doing so do they risk contaminating the soil? Surely there is enough expertise in the armed services to cut them into bite sized pieces so that they can be melted down and recycled. Or is such environmental thinking too far beyond our military?

IT was once said that if we want peace we must look for the goodness in one another. As we are all God's children, goodness is in all of us. However, this goodness needs to be nurtured in us through prayer and each other with love. We all need to radiate this love and goodness as much as we can. I say this because love and goodness bring honesty, honesty brings justice and justice brings peace. On the other hand, revenge is violence and violence begets violence; just look at what's happening in the Middle East. The choice is ours.

STEPHEN Balcombe was booked for illegal parking ("Baths swimmer fined before dawn", Herald, 9/2). I don't see what his issue is, especially when he says he's been doing it for years. Newcastle Ocean Baths isn't even open at that time of day. I once watched a woman complaining to a police officer that she'd already been booked "today" for parking her car in the motorbike-only parking zone at the baths as he was writing her ticket. He asked why she never moved her car, kept writing and gave her the second ticket. If you do the wrong thing, you should pay the price.

THE problems with our housing shortage could be partly alleviated with a simple tax change. One of the reasons that the government allows people to negatively gear is to provide housing for renters. Short-term rentals do not meet this need, so only long-term rentals should be negatively geared. Many of the short- term rentals are only there for the wealthy to use as a holiday house.