DEAR News Of The Area,

I WROTE a letter to the local paper a long time ago, praising the vibrant, colourful displays at the city’s roundabouts and road verges.

But as Julia Atkinson has said in a recent edition of this newspaper, things have changed, with many now in an embarrassing state.

There haven’t been a great many occasions when I’ve been proud of what our council has done. A decade ago our street was resurfaced.

Great, but it had been in perfect condition and didn’t need it, while other roads were a disgrace, as I also pointed out in the local paper at the time.

The new surface is inferior, requiring frequent patching of potholes after extended periods of rain.

But it’s not all bad news.

Many years ago we had a skimpy wire coathanger above a roundabout for a Christmas tree, about as embarrassing as Forster’s current infamous one, but at least there’s a decent tree now in the centre of town, albeit artificial and unlit.

My faith in most things to do with the council took a dive when our perfectly functional civic centre was bulldozed in the nineties to expand the RSL carpark.

Despite promises that it would be replaced, now all we have is an expensive, ugly, slime-green monstrosity that has no performing space.

Regards,
Graham MEALE,
Boambee East.