Stand up for right to complain

While many ratepayers never complain, some do.

I was never one to complain until I discovered my father was having a bit of trouble.

The upshot of being forced to deal with elected representatives local and state made me more aware of how our taxes are being squandered.

When the council insisted on putting down pavers in West St, Umina, I noticed they were also installing tactile aides for the visually impaired who use the CBD.

Why planners could not direct the tactile aids be installed correctly stopped me dead.

I spoke with one of the young men installing the tactile aids and asked why the ribbed pavers were not installed at right angles to the curb, pointing straight across the street, instead of at a dangerous angle out toward West St?

He told me he was required to follow the drawings.

I approached council by phone to point out before the mistake was built in place that the tactile aides would be dangerous to people who relied on them for guidance to cross the road with safety.

Nothing happened; the stupid error was built into the footpaths in Umina and elsewhere.

I complained for years to get the council to correct the alignment of the expensive tactile aides.

Never once did the disability access officer or the chair of the traffic committee or anyone else confer with me to find out what I was worried about.

Footpath crossing: For people using wheel chairs, it would be nice to make the ramp where it crosses the gutter just a few millimetres higher than either side of the ramp so when it stops raining the bottom of the ramp is the first dry part in the gutter crossing rather than the last which is how it is now.

Just a little thought, people who use wheel chairs won't be wheeling through puddles at the bottom of footpath ramps.

There is no cost involved just a little thought for disabled people.

Pearl Beach Dr: I know that others have battled with Gosford Council for years to have something done about the unstable condition of that road up over into Pearl Beach.

I was asked to become involved and I started a photo survey of the road pavement and then included the the culverts.

What a surprise to find most of the pipes needed work, in fact it was even more interesting to discover that Shirley Consulting had supplied Gosford City Council with photos of the same problems which I was photographing again over a year later.

In fact what was occurring on Pearl Beach Drive with wing walls on a culvert breaking apart, being propped up by an old rotten log, and gapped pipes allowing the road to be undermined by rain water.

These are truths about the same sort of neglect which can be applied to Woy Woy Rd, Leask Creek and Piles Creek.

When I started promulgating my photos what a surprise, council sprang into action and now seven of the culverts on the run down to Pearl Beach are replaced with some very impressive work, but not before more than a year of insistent complaints and then public exposure.

Those people who bring their concerns to me do so because they know I will push and push hard to get results.

Now when Gosford Council and all the councillors through the office of the Mayor Chris Holstein identifies me by name and tells Scott Levies' ABC radio listeners I jump up and down like a "loon" and no one knows what he's on about, maybe it is time for others to take offence at the clear inference that ratepayers are wasting council's time, stand up for our rights as voters and taxpayers.

Don't forget most of these councillors were only too quick to use our community resources and money to promote themselves in the Express Advocate.

Market cost to advertise in that paper is over $400 for the space each councillor used.

I expect Doyle, Burke, Houston, Freewater, Strickland and Latella to pay for their own self-promotion.

We can see Macfadyen, Scott and Maher had the good judgement not to pick the ratepayers pockets and the Mayor Holstein seems to have thought better of such a greedy dip and restrained himself at the last minute.

Hardly an insignificant cost except if you compare it to the many many millions of our money lost to speculative investments in collateralised debt obligations and sub-prime loan derivatives.

Edward James, Umina