Tennis court move not needed

The proposal by Gosford Council to move the existing Patonga tennis courts to the other end of the village to provide extra parking for the camping area is another magnificent display of bureaucratic numbskulledness.

While there is ample room to expand a number of parking areas within the camping area at minimal cost, council apparently prefers to spend at least one million dollars removing and rebuilding what is now a perfectly functioning amenity, to gain a few car spaces which will only be used or needed at peak holiday time.

The proposal to move the courts to the Eve Williams Oval area seems to ignore the almost overwhelming parking congestion that occurs in that area due to those attending the local pub.

The residents who live in the area of the oval and the pub now suffer from the associated traffic and parking problems and most certainly do not need any further development in that area.

Gosford Council and the Lands Department have pondered, plotted and planned ways of changing and even privatising the Patonga camping area over the past 40 or so years to my personal knowledge and possibly even longer.

I suspect the removal of the tennis courts from their present site, which is adjacent to the camping area, is just another step in that drawn out process.

Email, 20 Apr 2013

Vic Jefferies, St Huberts Island