Butt-ugly
HOW disheartening to see the South Beach parkland looking like one big ashtray during and after the festive season.
We would have a much cleaner and more pleasant place to visit if rangers were given powers to keep smokers off the grass and allowed dogs to enjoy the park.
Andrea Cicholas
Hamilton Hill
The Ed says: How ‘bout it, Dr Pettitt? Cockburn banned smokers from getting closer than 10 metres to other beachgoers—time for Freo to follow its lead? Maybe a bit more emphasis on enforcing it wouldn’t go astray, though.

Freo’s story is a low storey
I RECENTLY read of the $80million preliminary green light to put multi-storey developments in the heart of Fremantle.
I have been living in and around Fremantle for about 40 years and feel I have some idea about the Fremantle energy and ideas, and I can say with certainty that any multi-storey development is not Fremantle.
Fremantle is about community and communing and as in the old Myer building, given some space the Fremantle energy emerges, creative, relaxed and colourfully communicating.
As the mayor Brad Pettitt is from Roleystone I get the feeling he hasn’t quite embraced this community spirit yet. A ride on a bike around and he will see and feel the spirit.
A good example of Fremantle coming alive—and the mayor was unfortunately out of town—was the James Price Point March when there was a concert. The shops and cafes were full and the colours were out, 20,000 of them.
Even an Esplanade summer concert series would inject the much needed dollars into this tired community in the most positive way.
Tracey Donovan
Melville

Shane can stay at home
I WRITE in relation to your recent story about changes to the Disability Services Commission’s accommodation services (“Cruel cuts”, Herald, January 25 2014).
People like Shane Norton will be able to stay in their current house with their current housemates or move if they want to. It is their choice to make with the support of their families and carers.
Only 15 per cent of accommodation services for people with disability in WA are provided by the Disability Services Commission. The rest has been provided for decades by non-government organisations offering excellent care and support.
A list of more than 30 of these organisations, including Activ, Nulsen, Rocky Bay and The Centre for Cerebral Palsy, is being made available to help people like Shane for the first time choose their preferred option for future care and support.
By being better informed the member for Fremantle could provide better support to her constituents without unnecessarily instilling fear and angst in families.
Helen Morton MLC
Minister for Disability Services
The Ed says: Perhaps she got the same brush-off as the family?

Fiery spirit
THE Aussie spirit is alive and well. Parkland Villas Booragoon Retirement Village on Marmion Street escaped a potentially dangerous situation when fire engulfed an adjoining reserve on Monday of the long weekend.
After a branch fell on power lines, the resulting sparks ignited a small bush area alongside our boundary fence.
Prompt action by locals living nearby helped to keep the fire from spreading to villas only a few metres from the fence. A dozen or so men, women and teenagers organised hoses to prevent the flames reaching the buildings and they continued to work with their hoses after the Fire Brigade arrived.
All residents of our village would like to thank these families for racing to the rescue and saving the day. Isn’t it great that they saw the need and were so proactive in helping to prevent a serious situation developing? Grateful thanks to all those public-spirited locals. We salute you!
Joyce Funke
President, Parkland Villas
Booragoon Residents’ Association

Cracker traffic
THANKS to all concerned for the fireworks at Bather’s Beach.
I travelled to South Mole to park at the lighthouse. To get there was okay, but to return it was congested. It took 60 minutes at a snail’s pace to go from the lighthouse to Cliff Street (about 300 metres), but  everyone was calm.
Did mayor Brad Pettitt or his staff contact with Fremantle Port?
There was a three-way traffic flow from the lighthouse, then the passenger terminal and Cliff Street. I assumed the gate to the east of the wharf was closed. Traffic could have got out of the Shacks site if it was opened and dispersed at a more rapid speed.
Eddy Garbin
Samson
Ed’s note: This letter has been edited for clarity.

Bouquets to you
HEARTFELT thanks to the kind and caring person who placed beautiful flowers and a card on the fence at the Melville Shopping Centre.
I wasdismayed and saddened recently when my husband’s commemorative flowers
were stolen a number of times.
How uplifting that someone cared enough to put new flowers on the fence. They brought me much joy. Thank you.
Rita Tetlow
Bicton

Port Coogee now — beautiful
I TOLD Ya So!
On February 15 it will be 10 years since the rally’s on Coogee Beach for and against the Port Coogee development.
It is still fresh how divided the community was about this development.
The Coogee Coastal Action Coalition with truckloads of help from the Herald divided the community and opinions still differ today.
10 years down the track the now undeniable fact is this area of coast line looks a thousand percent better. Coogee beach is still there and all the disaster scenarios failed to eventuate just as we tried to tell people.
It is now the safest beach around with the shark net (incidentally a similar proposal was voted down at a Progress Association meeting some years ago by the same naysayers).
Coogee Beach, Port Coogee and CY O’Connor beach are a great place used by myself, my family and even my dogs.
The transformation from the polluted and in places inaccessible coastline we had is remarkable.
Fallacious stories of financial ruin for the community have proven to be false (of course) with it being no secret previous Fremantle council under Peter Tagliaferri would gladly have annexed this area if they could.
Opposition organisers claimed they were not doing it for political gain despite running in state and local elections on a regular basis since.
The Herald in their attempts to deny community support tried to imply professional protesters were bussed into the rally by the developer and its supporters.
The only buses in fact were supplied by the CCAC supporters to bus in supporters from Leighton. I often wonder if the CCAC members and supporters (including the Herald) ever stop to ask how they got it so wrong.
I took exception to Megan Jaceglav’s article in Thinking Allowed (Bulldozed! Herald, December 13, 2013). She states that the Cockburn council is indifferent to traffic congestion and builds and develops without consideration for residents.
I notice in her article she moved to Spearwood seven years ago. Most of this major development was well under way at this stage.
Market gardeners have every right to redevelop their land. I understand some don’t like the change, but it should be understood this is a product of Perth’s population growth and no council will change this.
The council should be judged according to how it performs given this pressure and by all accounts I receive and see Cockburn are doing a fine job.
Former Cockburn mayor Stephen Lee may have not understood probity when allowing himself to get cornered by self-interested parties with regard to fund raising, but not withstanding this he was elected twice as a champion for the marina development. Cockburn council should be applauded for their courageous and mature leadership with regard to development along the coast and in the suburbs.
Dave Ward
Coogee
The Ed says: Thanks Dave, but the Herald doesn’t pick sides in issues, it simply reports on what people are saying and doing. And here’s one to ponder: if Australand was so convinced about the support for its development, why did it stoop to funneling secret donations into Mr Lee’s mayoral campaign? Did you read the Corruption and Crime Commission transcripts and report on Port Coogee? 

C’mon Aussies
I AM appalled at the clinical execution of one of the marvels of nature carried out by WA authorities.
The act of pumping four bullets into the head of a majestic great white shark, towing it out to sea and dumping it is nothing short of barbaric.
Yes, we too in Auckland shot a shark that had just killed a swimmer last year but it does not make it right.
No, I do not rate sharks above humans, but if someone went skateboarding in the African jungle and was eaten by a tiger, would we blame it and mount a campaign to slaughter all the tigers who went about their business of living naturally as they have done for thousands of years?
We are indeed a species to fear and will not rest, it seems, until we have wiped off the planet anything that is dangerous to us, especially if it represents a threat to commercial sporting events and associated media coverage such as the surfing competition coming up.
Come on Aussies, you are better than this. Do not degrade yourselves to the level of Japanese whalers in the southern ocean. Stop this ridiculous and wasteful slaughter!
John Carrodus
Hobsonville, Auckland