Mel, Leuca: more information needed
I REFER to your article by Rob Mellett on June 11, “Saving Mel and Leuca: fight for paperbarks heats up”.
I fully agree with the comments made by local environmental advocate Val Wheatley and her associates on the benefits of these impressive 50-year-old trees such as “offering shade, a sense of atmosphere and habitat for native wildlife”.
The statement in the Council’s Preliminary Concept Design that removal would “enhance access and awareness of historical buildings” seems to miss the whole point of D’Arcy Doyle Place, as was well documented in the article.
The issues raised as “problems” do not mention standard tests that can be undertaken or, as Rob Mellett has correctly noted, “whether alternative tree preservation design options were fully explored”.
A great deal more information needs to be provided before even consideration of removal.
Thank you for your balanced and ongoing reporting in this matter.
L. Bleakley, Ipswich
Failing our homeless
HOMELESSNESS falls under the State Government to resolve.
State governments have been not holding up their end of the bargain for decades and have not kept up spending on social or affordable housing stock.
It’s now a crisis.
No longer is a roof over one’s head a human right. Shameful.
We don’t even have a homeless shelter in Ipswich. Shameful.
Meanwhile, our State Government invested $44 million into an $85 million dog racing track at Purga that just opened, yet 11 dogs have died during racing trials since March, and the State Government has just shut down the new track as it has been deemed “unsuitable for racing”.
Imagine how much social and affordable housing or homeless shelters could have been built with $44 million or $85 million, instead of building a “death track” that nobody in Ipswich wanted.
Logan didn’t want the dog racing track, so it was forced on to Ipswich.
Danielle Mutton, North Ipswich
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