WAGGA NEEDS OPEN SPACES
Could there be a case for a soon-to-be-vacant plot of land in Central Wagga to be turned into a charming bushland park?
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This thought is prompted by seeing the marvellous progress made by Wagga Wagga City Council in giving us the people-friendly riverside upgrade.
Until recently the block of land in Docker Street, between Morgan and Forsyth streets, was home to the Veteran and Vintage Car Club and before that to the Wagga Postal Institute tennis courts and picnic ground.
This modest pocket of now "surplus" land already belongs to our community and is now crying out for some imaginative TLC to transform it into the gem it could be.
How rewarding it would be to give Central Wagga a new park as our numbers grow and we feel pressure on our public spaces.
I can't help but think now is the right time to plan for the city's future greenery needs and ensure we don't unthinkingly move from "leafy" to "gritty".
It would be a shame to see the Docker Street site sold off, as is planned. That would be a sad outcome for a community owned asset - one we can't get back once it is gone.
Doubtless there are hurdles to overcome but claiming back one of our few inner city open spaces for us all to enjoy would surely be worth the effort.
This is a proposal; what we need is a plan.
Catherine Sterling, Wagga
HOLDING BACK THE PROGRESS
Dear council staff, do not worry about having to speed up development applications.
Have another meeting and a coffee break.
Fancy some developer complaining about your procedures taking three years to consider. And as your team leader pointed out, the appropriate people have read the papers concerned.
After all, what do they want? A decision?
There is no need to be disturbed just because our Prime Minister now wants to cut red tape.
All you have to do is to consider he has 'do nothing' Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack there to keep his seat warm.
The combined efforts of the anti-development Greens and faint-hearted Coalition people will see absolutely nothing changes.
Des Goonan, Wagga
WE CAN'T JUST ERASE HISTORY
While I fully appreciate the sentiment toward statues depicting significant historical figures and their actions, good or (in hindsight) detrimental, that is what they are - historical statues, raised in times when communities who erected them were not as enlightened as we are today.
To remove or destroy these statues is to attempt to remove irremovable history. My suggestion is that some type of appropriate retraction in light of modern day enlightenment be attached to them, so that we might acknowledge the truly great achievements of some of our forebears, while admitting that there have been mistakes made by a very different era of gentrified upper (mainly) British classes with no appreciation of the real impact their actions would have.
It is a sad fact that had not the British "discovered" Australia, inevitably another country would have and we would be stuck with similar "colonial" shortsightedness. Discovery is inherent in humankind, today there is research to investigate us inhabiting another planet. We should very carefully look at the mistakes of our forebears.
Carol Read, Lavington
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