Umina could be better than Terrigal

Fran Adams (Peninsula News, October 4) stated that she doesn't want to see Umina Beach become the new Dee Why.

Why ever not?

I remember Dee Why in the 70s.

It was an ugly, rundown dump of a place.

Now it is a vibrant area where people want to go to.

Umina Beach has the potential to be the best place on the whole Central Coast.

Its position is enviable. It has a gorgeous beach with wonderful views and it has loads of space to build in the CBD.

It deserves better.

If someone could just get adventurous with their planning, the traffic could be taken out of the main part of West St between Ocean Beach Rd and Trafalgar St and diverted through Wellington St, and we could have a pedestrian mall, properly planted out, with classy street furniture.

Successful big businesses like Woolworths, Coles, Aldi and Bunnings don't build without strategic planning.

They can see the potential.

And correct me if I'm wrong but Umina also has the largest population of any suburb on the Coast.

Why should all these people have to travel to get to any decent shops?

Every time I go into the two main supermarkets they seem well patronised.

Terrigal's CBD was awful when I lived up here in the late 80s but now look at it!

Umina could be even better than that.

There's always room for small business.

What you have to realise, is that like in other places, in Sydney for example, the big businesses pull in people for the small ones.

They just have to adapt to the new marketplace.

Some of us want these changes.

Umina is unfortunately already the "unloved Cinderella of the Woy Woy Peninsula".

But there's a move to shake off the down-at-heel, poor suburb reputation it has everywhere, and grow into what it should be and what its inhabitants deserve.

Email, 7 Oct 2011 John Blackhawk, Umina Beach