Black Rock development nothing to cheer

With so many former mine sites begging to be properly rehabilitated and repurposed, the replacement of already mostly reforested land (home to threatened species of owls, gliders and plants, to name just a few of the site's attributes) with an asphalt covered heaven for noisy petrol-powered vehicles is absurd.

Spruiking a poorly placed motorsport park is a step backwards from a council that proudly promotes its sustainability festivals, green credentials and support for a transition away from a fossil fuel driven economy.

And according to a Black Rock letter drop to nearby residents last week "temporary worker accommodation onsite where our staff will live and work" has been built. Why is this required when Black Rock is supposedly all about jobs for locals who will spend their wages in the region?

A quick look under the hood and this development is far less impressive than first meets the eye.

Predictably, the decision was made to bulldoze Myuna Bay Recreation Centre.

I wrote to the state member, LMCC and the Sports Minister asking them how they could justify closing the centre on the grounds that it was a safety risk, due to its proximity to the ash dam walls at the adjacent Eraring power station, which could be breached by an earthquake, and yet leave the adjoining, heavily patronised, Myuna Bay Park, the main road road, carrying 10,000 cars a day open, and homes in the area occupied.

Only the Sports Minister answered, and, in their answer, they gave no justification for this, despite the threat to life if the safety risk is genuine. That tells me all I need to know about the so called safety risk. The roads and park would obviously be closed if the risk was genuine.

So we are going to have a new centre built at Morisset, at a cost of around $30 million, when Myuna Bay centre could have been restored for about $5 million. So much for the cash-strapped government.

Worse still, it will only be a pale imitation of Myuna Bay, where the attraction was school groups, holidaying kids, and sporting groups could stay in the accommodation there.

The proposed Morisset centre won't have any accommodation. It is no more than a hugely expensive, regular park of the kind found throughout Lake Macquarie.

Lake Macquarie council should be congratulated for voicing its opposition to the state government's housing reforms that it described as ill-considered, which is an understatement.

Unfortunately, those responsible for planning in the state government have adopted a program for trying to house the huge jump in population - more than 600,000 in just one year - while ignoring the many other issues that need to be addressed.

We are already short on essential infrastructure, and the AMA's 2023 Ambulance Ramping Report claimed that it was putting lives at risk. NSW is home to 5093 demountable teaching spaces, 81 of them in just one school, because there is insufficient land or funds for new school construction. Infrastructure Australia said that the cost of road congestion in Sydney, the Hunter and Illawarra in 2016 was about $8 billion a year.

Climate change and population growth is making cities more vulnerable to extreme events and less habitable, as witnessed by the floods that killed five people and destroyed 4000 homes in Lismore. Yet, two years on, most of the survivors are still living in tents or caravans.

It's much the same story for those caught in the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires where it took two years to rebuild 15 per cent of the homes needed, a stark contrast to the 2009 bushfires when 77 per cent had been rebuilt in the same time. It's an example of the problem we now face, planners don't know where devastating floods might occur and developers don't care.

Big thanks to the Herald for keeping Newcastle council honest over the Bath/Neylon letters. However, it's obvious that the current council is above answering to residents and ratepayers, so it's time to tell the complete truth and not an edited version. The only way to find out the truth is to sack the CEO and the council and install an administrator to resolve the matter before the next council election.

To the driver of the 13 bus on Saturday night who had to put up with abuse from two individual passengers at two different stops, I say sorry. Sorry from our fellow passengers. Thank you for driving us home safely. Thank you for your courtesy and professionalism. To the people who think abuse is OK, please stay off our bus. We don't want you.

What good is international law? There is an international arrest warrant for Putin, but he's untouchable. Blatant navigational laws are completely ignored by China. Apparent war crimes by Israel. Iran's human rights crimes and nothing can be achieved. I could go on with more . . .

Ukraine's War: The Other Side doco on ABC's Four Corners recently offered a horrible insight into this disastrous war. I kissed the ground and thought how good it was to live in Newcastle.

In his letter ("Think of the dealers", Letters, 30/3) Steve Barnett suggests that the Greens should lobby the government to support the drug dealers whose businesses are being drastically reduced due to the increased cancellations of music festivals. That would be like asking the butchers to support the vegans.

How quick we are to stress about erosion at beaches from Merewether to Bar Beach, yet Stockton is mentioned more or less as an afterthought. I wonder why? The cynic in me says "money talks''.