The design intent statement produced by Cox Architecture introduced architectural concepts hitherto unknown to me. The statement informs us the intent was for the proposed design "to activate the established streetscape through a controlled manipulation and play of light and shadow." The meaning of this is a mystery to me. The design would "also provide glimpses of activity when perceived from street level". I presume such "glimpses' relate to space rather than time.

I searched the DA lodged to support the development for a better understanding of these design concepts but could not find any elaboration of their meaning.

What I did discover after reading the City Precinct Code Statement Against Criteria was that buildings on sites adjacent to main pedestrian areas and routes are required to be limited in height to ensure that these areas remain substantially sunlit. The proponent has responded that this requirement doesn't apply because the proposal is not adjacent to a main pedestrian route. This assertion surprises me when I recall the extensive reporting of positive responses from business operators who welcomed the increase in pedestrian movements along Bunda Street after it was converted into a shared way.

Each of the tenderers who pitched a design of the Bunda Street conversion to a shared way emphasised the importance of creating a pedestrian friendly precinct not compromised by the street's other users. The successful design has delivered this in spades.

The shadow diagrams that accompanied the DA illustrate that there is no time of a winter's day when Bunda Street is not in full or partial shadow. An unfortunate consequence of the massed office fronting Genge Street on its western side is that Gus's Cafe and its neighbours now enjoy very little direct sunlight in winter. Surely these most welcome additional Dendy screens can be accommodated within the existing building envelope.

Emmanuel H. Notaras, Forrest

I find it somewhat amusing that there are still those out there who claim more people will ride bikes if the helmet laws are relaxed ("Heads still in a spin over bicycle helmet laws", CT, October 25, p10).

And the absurd reasons for not wearing a helmet are outright fanciful. One has to assume that these same people also catch the bus in case that darned nuisance of a seatbelt messes with their clothing.

Joe Murphy, Bonython

You believe that "the community should be heartened by the news that more foreign investment dollars are pouring into Canberra" (Sunday Focus, October 25).

Doubtless, Canberra's real estate salespeople will agree, but I do not. Most of Australia's mining industry is foreign-owned, as is what is left of our manufacturing, and our retailers, and now farm industries are threatened.

And you welcome the sale of our housing stock to absentees, pushing up prices for the locals.

What proportion of our houses would you like them to own? 5 per cent? 25 per cent? 75 per cent? Pick a figure and try to justify it.

I would settle for zero. Australia should have a better business plan than selling off bits to foreigners until there is little left and we are tenants in our own land, which is what you apparently support.

Hugh Dakin, Griffith

It is natural the number of firearms in the community would increase in proportion to the increase in the population as many law-abiding, taxpaying, voting citizens take up the sport of shooting, recognising that shooting activities are lawful, enjoyable, productive, and have been since European settlement began. We shooters haven't noticed any diminution in gun laws. The tsunami of gun control laws imposed at the behest of the Howard government was a case of too much, too late. Previous governments at state and federal level should have been heeding the submissions of the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia, which first raised the matter of gun laws and licensing as early as 1967, if memory serves me correctly.

The Adler lever-action shotgun is no more "rapid fire" than any lever action, a type readily available in Australia in a variety of calibres since the 1880s.

The only problem with lever-action firearms is that another opportunist in the form of Senator George Brandis thinks they are dangerous, without offering cogent evidence.

What is Mr Baxter's definition of "inexpert recreational hunters"? No one gets a firearm licence in this country without satisfying jurisdiction requirements.

What's wrong with the Narooma HuntFest being held in a public building? Public buildings are available for use by anyone following a lawful pursuit, having obtained permissions from authorities and paying fees.

Eurobodalla Shire had weighed the pros and cons of running HuntFest and concluded it was a good thing for the shire, its success over the past few years demonstrates that. A democratic result benefiting everyone compared with the disgraceful, irrational obfuscation of the local Greens and camp followers.

Ray Atkin, Ngunnawal

Proposals to dam the Baram River reek of deja vu, or insanity, repeating the same process while expecting a different result each time (Future endangered by rising water, October 24, p19). Examples of these disastrous dam projects may be found on all continents. From the 1940s, 25 dams were built by the Tasmanian Hydro-Electric Commission, its building binge only being halted by the Gordon-below-Franklin campaign.

Inspired by the US Tennessee River Irrigation Scheme, mainland Australia sought to satisfy its hunger for power by constructing the mighty Snowy Mountain Hydro-Electric scheme, with scant regard for its environmental impact, or the once, free-flowing Snowy River.

China's Three Gorges Dam flooded great tracts of fertile land, destroyed fisheries and displaced 1.3million people. The World Bank and taxpayer-subsidised corporations, from 13 countries, benefited from the largess of its $37billion capital cost, while abdicating moral responsibility for its environmental destruction. The 15 dams on the Colorado Rive, altered the ecology of the Gulf of California, immutably. In a Cold War, imperial gesture, Russia financed the Aswan High Dam, thereby contributing to shrinking of the Nile Delta. India's Ganges has been harnessed with devastating environmental outcomes; and 200 dams are proposed for the Amazon.

In this, the age of technology, hydropower, because of its profound environmental footprint, is anachronistic. Alternative power sources would not remove land from food production. Dam building seems fuelled by testosterone and hubris, tainted by corruption and profit-motivated avarice.

Albert M. White, Queanbeyan

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