Dear News Of The Area,

I HAVE watched and listened to the discussion regarding the ‘development’ of the foreshores area of Coffs Harbour.

There are many reasons why this should not go ahead.

I will address just one here.

Mr Singh this is addressed to you.

There is, across all development world wide, a phrase called ‘planning ahead’.

So let’s plan ahead.

Let’s say 450 dwellings are planned to be built at the Jetty foreshores.

That is up to an additional 900 additional people living in this area with the attached increased need for public amenities which I won’t address.

Let’s just think about vehicles.

How many per household – one, two, and a boat?

Let’s say just one for this discussion.

So that is 450 vehicles spaces.

‘They will all have on-site garages’, you say, ‘they will be parked in the garages overnight’ I hear you say, yeah right.

The majority will be parked overnight on the street!

Are you imagining this?

Between 6am and 7:30am let’s say 400 vehicles will be driven to a workplace.

That is about three vehicles per minute driven across the railway line – are you imagining this? What does this look like at the intersection of Harbour Drive and Orlando Street?

How long will it be before a vehicle and a train come together?

It will be gridlock back to the Marina Drive roundabout.

How do we know this?

It happens already, on weekends.

You don’t have to imagine this, just drop in one Sunday.

‘Anyway’, you say, ‘vehicles can go via Camperdown street’.

Right past the high school as the students are arriving, on foot mum is dropping them off or arriving by bus – are you imagining this?

It is called dangerous chaos and gridlock.

There will generally be increased traffic all day simply because 900 additional people are now living in this area.

At about 3pm it all begins again, with traffic backed up from the Orlando Street and Harbour Drive intersection back up to Camperdown Street, where the students are leaving school and the mums and buses are arriving to pick up the students – are you imagining this?

A little bit after this the 400 vehicles that drove out this morning are about to arrive back.

They will be arriving until about 6pm, hoping to get a good night’s sleep and do it all tomorrow.

Fascinating isn’t it?

It’s called planning ahead and deciding not to develop the foreshores.

Regards,
Kerry BAYLISS,
Coffs Harbour.