Monday 10 June 2013

Clarence Valley North-South Divide throws up yet another letter


Forced local government amalgamation in the Clarence Valley, followed by an [expletive deleted] administration period from which the council is still recovering, fractured any hope of a united population and the current set of shire councillors is doing its best to further entrench and widen that fracture.

Nowhere is that rift more obvious than in the letters-to-the-editor section of local newspapers.

Here is one of the latest published in The Daily Examiner on 4 June 2013:

It would be nice if the people of Grafton, who have such a down on the Lower Clarence would check their facts. Yes, we do have two swimming pools, but my older children learnt to swim in the old quarry pool before the rock pool was built in about 1967/68. We (the people of Yamba) began to work for a heated community pool only to have a newcomer to town who wanted a hydro pool at the Maclean Hospital, so our efforts went to help her, then Maclean pool was enlarged from 25m to 50m, so we helped again.   Then we went flat out to raise funds for our heated pool and much volunteer labour went into that pool. As regards to our developments having proper footpaths and guttering, well I think Maclean Council had much to do with that. It did not cost $1 million dollars to fix our rock pool, not nearly as much as the South Grafton pool. Please think before your next rave. I have a little knowledge of local government as my late husband was a Maclean councillor for eight and a half years. The extra six months was to fight against amalgamation - but we lost.   Marie Rheinberger, Yamba

No comments: