What about the trees?
SO, $60MILLION is needed to finish the arboretum.
Has resourcing the ACT's arboretum taken precedence over maintaining the ailing and unkempt trees, parks and verges in the territory? The head of Canberra Parks (''Thousands of healthy trees to go in urban forest plan'', May 25, p1) is quoted as saying that 70 per cent of Canberra's trees will be cut down and replaced over a 25-year period.
The inclusion of the trees on Northbourne Avenue opposite Exhibition Park on the hit list could be due to neglect.
These trees, and many others in Dickson, Lyneham and Canberra as whole, haven't seen as much as a pair of secateurs in years let alone any tending of the areas they grow in.
They have growth up their trunks (if you can see the trunks) and dead branches in their canopies. As well, cars are often parked on verges right up against trees, compacting the soil.
An interviewee on local radio said this was an illegal practice is it?
I know it will ruin the look of the place, but we don't want to be spending millions more (a la Mulligans Flat) to bring animals back because habitats were destroyed.
L. Giles, Bywong
Dead man walking?
SO ANOTHER brave anonymous senior ACT Labor Party source has told The Canberra Times, regarding party secretary Bill Redpath (''Redpath a dead man walking'', June 12 , p3): ''It's just a question of whether he walks out or is carried out on a stretcher.''
Warming to the topic, your anonymous source goes on to say, '' If he hangs on, he'll never work for the party again but if he walks he will be welcomed as a servant of the party.''
Which invites the question just who would want to work for people like that?
Steve Anderson, Forrest
What a waste of paint
MR STANHOPE might think the Opposition's question about the cost of white paint is frivolous but there are quite a few out here in the land of the ratepayer who are concerned about it.
More and more white paint is being splashed about turning four-lane roads into two-lane roads and two-lane roads into alleyways.
In particular, he might like to have a look at the insanity about to take place on the eastbound lanes of Ginninderra Drive at the intersection with Coulter Drive and explain to the people of Belconnen why this is thought to be necessary.
Quite a few of us would be interested to know how much it cost to reposition the white lines that had only just been painted on Springvale Drive.
He might also like to explain why, when cycle lanes finish in the middle of nowhere, it's necessary to also have a roadside sign telling us the cycle lane has ended.
Does he think motorists are blind?
Why the proliferation of signs urging motorists to watch out for cyclists at intersections?
This is normal driver behaviour and does not need signage.
It is an outlandish waste of money that could be better spent elsewhere.
J.F. Bishop, Flynn
How much is enough?
TO SAY Phil Spector was not a nice person would be a glaring understatement.
He deserves a life sentence for murdering actress Lana Clarkson.
However, for the California Department of Corrections to issue a mug shot of the wigless Spector is a bit below the belt (''Musical bigwig has bad hair day in jail'', June 12, p9).
It was obviously done to further humiliate him, and was totally unnecessary.
John Winter, Fraser
Letting Griffith go
AS A regular visitor to the Government-owned pensioner units in Bishop Bourne Court, Griffith, I am dismayed at the lack of even the most basic maintenance in this area, particularly the parking area and footpaths.
The tenants of these pensioner units were also promised a security fence more than two years ago by the ACT Government and, so far, nothing has been done to keep this promise.
Bishop Bourne Court is just up the hill from the old Griffith library and the O'Connell Education Centre, which are also being allowed to run down.
It seems to me that, as these sites are prime real estate, the ACT Government may be planning to sell off yet another chunk of the family farm for short-term financial gain.
The ACT Government owes it to the tenants of Bishop Bourne Court and to ACT taxpayers to advise what their intentions are for these sites before they pour more than $7million into the proposed alternative library in Kingston.
Paul Parritt, Ngunnawal
Make most of Manuka
CURRENT DEVELOPMENT plans provide the opportunity to consider the historic Manuka Oval as a venue that could take advantage of its heritage setting. Let's confine the really big arenas to Bruce, where large-scale facilities can be provided for sporting fans.
Manuka Oval sits within Manuka Circle in Griffin's initial city area, next to Telopea Park, Manuka Pool, the Canberra Services Club, the old Mothercraft Centre (now the Manuka Arts Centre), the fire station precinct and old parts of Forrest and Griffith.
Add to this the curator's residence and the old Melbourne Cricket Club scoreboard and you have a fantastic heritage asset. Some relatively modest work on the external fencing and pavilion facades, together with the development of public facilities that could be used between matches (maybe an English-style gastropub and cricket museum?) would help create a more accessible multi-use facility with a broader revenue base.
The risks of increasing Manuka Oval's capacity by more than 6000 are significant.
Traffic and parking would become more problematic at big match times and would exacerbate the impact of major developments such as at The Realm, where traffic measures planned include one-way streets.
New buildings outside the oval itself would degrade the heritage landscape.
We have a unique heritage landscape in the Manuka Oval area, so let's take advantage of it.
Nick Swain, Barton
Pull the other one
I DON'T mean to knock Mazda (I was a very satisfied owner of one, years ago) but Ian Crawford's gushing in ''Mazda zooms ahead'' (June 12, p15) is over the top.
Mazda's stated satisfaction score of 782 is less than 3per cent higher than the industry average of 761.
Hardly a rating of ''well above'' and certainly undeserving of the article's headline.
''Mazda putt-putts ahead'' would be more like it.
Bronis Dudek, Calwell
Rudd plays the tune
LAST WEEK Kevin Rudd declared the Opposition had run up the white flag on debating national issues such as debt and the global financial crisis.
Instead, they were trying to link Rudd's use of a 13-year-old ute as proof of his indebtedness to a Queensland car dealer.
Now it seems that, like Jo Bjelke-Petersen before him, Rudd has converted the media into being chooks, to be fed by hand when necessary.
The media over recent weeks have focused on his in-flight eating habits, his short temper, his ruffled hair and now we are asked to give serious thought to whether his use of Australian colloquial language is staged, and whether the usage is accurate! So the Opposition and the media have been suckered into an incredibly deep analysis of totally inane issues.
Rudd: 2, Opposition and Media: 0, I would say.
David Kindon, Merimbula
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