Annoyances to senior residents

There are annoyances, which cause concern for senior residents on the Peninsula.

I wish to bring attention to two of these.

The absence of public seating at bus stops (not where bus shelters are provided) is hard on older people with disabilities.

Woy Woy used to have multiple opportunities for such people.

Now seats are few and far between at the waterfront reserves for both rest and recreation, and in shopping streets.

Many people in Woy Woy are disabled in minor and major ways, and testimony for this is the number who use walking sticks and frames.

I can only assume that the seats have been removed due to vandalism and to prevent the homeless from using the seats at night for rest.

In this day of technological discoveries, surely seats to resist damage can be produced, and as for the homeless, well they have to sleep somewhere off the ground.

More seats would also benefit picnickers.

Recently the damage and theft of flowering plants and shrubs has been noticed at Woy Woy from public gardens, pinched out of the "public purse".

Our rates pay for these and the thieves have no regard for public sentiment when they steak from a memorial park.

A lot of rate payers could testify that stealing plants is endemic by so-called respectable types, and many pensioners lose plants they have cherished and pots they have paid for.

During the 1930 Depression, recalled by us oldies, giving slips from plants and asking for seeds and bits was socially acceptable.

But in these times, watching for residents to leave their homes on holidays and then "doing over" their backyards surely is not acceptable.

They are thieving from the "private purse", and they should be told to buy their own.

Enid Harrison, Woy Woy