Horrified at foreshore plans

On reading the latest edition of your newspaper, I was horrified to learn of the plans envisaged by Fast Ship Ltd to build a yacht club and other commercial facilities, along with their wharf, on the Ettalong foreshore.

I am quite sure the residents of The Esplanade, who obviously purchased their homes (and paying the respective high prices) because of the view, will feel the same way.

I am not a resident of The Esplanade, however, my husband and I purchased our first Central Coast home in Ettalong in 1995, specifically because we loved the waterfront and the relaxed lifestyle that it brought to the area.

I cannot count the number of times we have walked along the waterfront from Memorial Ave to Ocean Beach surf club, or sat and enjoyed a meal cooked at the veterans' memorial barbecue taking pleasure in this stretch of waterfront.

I repeat, it is one of the things that has brought us to the area, to holiday originally and later to live, and I am sure it is the same for many others.

Just take the time to sit and count the number of people who walk there each day!

My husband is a Vietnam Veteran and since moving to the area we have become involved with the local sub-branch meeting and befriending those men who built the barbecue and the memorial on the foreshore.

Every Monday morning, the men from the sub-branch go down to the waterfront to clean the barbecue after the weekend and it is obvious that this facility has been well used by the members of the public all year round.

The memorial is the venue for a small ANZAC Day service and a much larger Long Tan Day Commemoration Service held in August each year - the venue again chosen because of its tranquility.

The setting is a perfect place to contemplate the sacrifices made by those young men and women who were sent to serve their country.

Recently the veteran community of the Peninsula came off second best over the naming of the new Peninsula leisure centre which was changed from "War Memorial Pool".

I hope that the callousness of the council is not to be felt again with the disturbance of the area of Ettalong.

I agree that the area might need some improvement, but not in this manner and it seems to me that the residents (ie the rate payers and voters) should be the ones who have the final say with regard to this development, not the small group of local business people and developers who live elsewhere, where their views will not be impeded.

Robyn Creswell, Umina Beach