DEAR News Of The Area,

I READ with astonishment Cr Rodger Pryce’s letter in Coffs Coast NOTA on October 7 telling us that the ‘revitalisation’ of the Jetty Foreshores would result in more open space than is currently there at present, in spite of the fact that the plan proposes at least thirteen new buildings on currently vacant land east of the North Coast rail line.

I cannot see anywhere in the plan a proposal to dredge the harbour to provide more land, so I assume Cr Pryce is using some of the weasel words beloved by politicians to exclude from his view any vacant land not currently being used as parkland.

Every politically approved plan to date has proposed residential development on the Jetty Foreshores, in spite of strong and sustained opposition from the local community.

Having arrived here in 1979, I have watched with great appreciation the hard and sustained work and planning which has transformed a dirty, drab and dangerous industrial area, with piles of poles and logs and rusting tin and ageing fibro freight sheds full of asbestos.

Today’s Jetty Foreshores parkland is a green, blue and gold delight and the Draft Masterplan includes many good ideas.

More housing for the wealthy is not one of them.

I can see why local real estate agents, developers and builders would be salivating at the thought of using the rail-side land for housing.

After all, the public, Landcare, council, local service clubs, Bob Carr etc have already provided the gardens, landscaping, statuary and ocean views.

And guess who will buy the units?

That’s right, the over 55s, the only ones who can afford them.

Like Cr Pryce, I am over 55, but the young people I talk to, struggling to pay high rents or high mortgages for basic dwellings on small plots, say the more open space, the better.

They would like to see their kids running, tumbling and playing, swinging, screeching and skating, without being shushed by the millionaires overlooking them from their balcony.

Regards,
Belinda SCOTT,
Upper Orara.