Two people drown at Frazer Beach

A man and woman have died after being pulled from the water unconscious at Frazer Beach in the Munmorah State Conservation Area.

Just before 4.20pm on Wednesday, February 8, emergency services were called to Frazer Beach following reports two people had been pulled from the water unresponsive.

Witnesses commenced CPR before NSW Ambulance paramedics arrived but the two could not be revived.

They are yet to be formally identified but are believed to be aged in their 40s.

Officers attached to Tuggerah Lakes Police District have

February 10, an off-duty police officer saw the man at a shopping centre in Bay Village Rd, Bateau Bay.

Officers from the newlyformed Raptor North squad were notified and with assistance from officers attached to Tuggerah Lakes Police District, the man was arrested soon after at the shopping centre.

During a search of the man, police located mobile phones, cash, a bottle alleged to contain the drug GHB and prescription medication.

These items were seized to undergo forensic examination.

The man was taken to Wyong Police Station, where the outstanding warrant was executed, and he was also charged on two counts of possess prohibited drug, drive motor vehicle during disqualification period, and police pursuit - not stop - drive recklessly.

Source: NSW Police

Police pop into The Glen

Police from Tuggerah Lakes and Brisbane Water Police Districts visited The Glen Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation at Chittaway Point on February 14.

Commander, Northern Region, Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna, Commander, tuggerah Lakes PD, Superintendent Chad Gillies, Commander, Brisbane Water PD, Superintendent Darryl Jobson and the Senior Leadership Teams met with staff and volunteers from The

Glen Rehab for Men. Executive Director of The Glen Joe Coyte provided an overview of the program and its benefits. Police heard some inspirational stories and gained a greater insight into the goals of The Glen and itsr efforts to improve the lives of the clients who participate in the program.

Source: Brisbane Water Police District Facebook page commenced inquiries into the incident. A report will be prepared for the information of the Coroner.

Source: Media release, Feb 8, 2023, NSW Police

If the Council Administrator thinks that his “explanation” of the rate rises clarifies the matter or satisfies the community, he is naive indeed (CCN 377).

The idea that the fact that we are spending more than we’re earning is all the justification that is needed for a rate rise is ridiculous.

The obvious question is why, when infrastructure is inadequate for requirements, community facilities are in a dire state, and council services are abysmal, are we spending so much?

One answer that immediately suggests itself is that the Council is so incompetently run that everything costs more than it should and that the first line of action should be to improve efficiencies, rather than throw more money at the problem.

When it takes six months to get a response from Council to a simple development application, something is sadly amiss.

Two months is supposed to be the standard time for determination of a development application, but the Council comes nowhere near this timing, for even the smallest of projects.

Similarly, when letters to the Council are just ignored, not even warranting the courtesy of an acknowledgement, there is a bad culture at work.

Council servants are employees of the ratepayers, and ratepayers deserve to be treated accordingly.

My experience (admittedly, from many years ago) is that Council servants prefer being under an Administrator to being under a Council, because it allows them to follow standardized bureaucratic processes, without ever being queried about it.

However, it can also engender an attitude that ratepayers really don’t have any leverage, because they have no recourse to a representative who can intervene on their behalf.

For this reason alone, return to a representative Council should be as early as possible.

It is obvious that Kevin Brooks is absolutely correct when he says that “Mr. Hart has still not fixed the underlying causes” of the Council’s problems.

Selling off property and borrowing money to “balance the books” is just a mechanical exercise that almost anybody could undertake.

The great defect of the Administrator Mark 1’s term was that he did not leave a functioning administrative mechanism in place for the elected Council that took his place, even though that was his principal responsibility.

It looks very much as though an incoming Council, if ever we are allowed one, might face the same problem all over again.

However, how does this leave us for the next two years, when we are virtually powerless to influence any decision that the Administrator makes?

Email, Feb 13

Bruce Hyland, Woy Woy

Dr Reid, stop raising interest rates

I am a resident of the Gosford area hence my email to you. Since you got into Government, interest rates have risen and continue to rise.

I am no economist but this approach by RBA clearly is not working and it is having a huge effect on the normal worker of Australia.

I see pictures of you almost every week in the local paper and you seem to be a community liaison person.

The RBA has basically said that rates will continue to rise – please, this cannot continue.

Families are being slugged as it is.

What is the plan behind the scenes to curb inflation rather than keep increasing rates?

Protest letters have been sent by concerned locals for more than 30 years.

I hope they haven’t been overlooked by the “new” council or misplaced during the move.

Ferry Road parking

I have recently have been fined for “double parking” in Ferry Rd.

I was not parked.

I was in my car waiting to pick up an elderly neighbour arriving on the ferry.

I was not blocking anyone’s driveway.

There is very limited parking in Ferry Rd. and quite often drivers have to hover while passengers disembark.

There is only one space for cars with a Disability Parking Permit.

It is unfair to force elderly or disabled people to walk long distances to available parking which is usually streets away. I think some leeway should be given to drivers and some thought given to helping our citizens in most need.

Email, David Davies, Blackwall

Arts, culture and entertainment on the Central Coast is set to benefit from the Federal Government’s new National Cultural Policy, Revive, with a raft of administrative changes on the way and $286M in dedicated funding – including $5M to upgrade training facilities at NAISDA Dance College’s Kariong campus.

Member for Robertson Gordon Reid said Revive will empower our talented artists and arts organisations to thrive and grow – unlocking new opportunities, reaching new audiences and telling stories in compelling new ways.

“It will bring drive, direction and vision back to the $17B industry – which employs an estimated 400,000 Australians – after a lost decade of federal policy drift and funding neglect,” he said.

Backed by $286M in dedicated funding over four years, Revive’s centrepiece is the establishment of Creative Australia.

This will be the Government’s new principal arts investment and advisory body.

The governing body of Creative Australia will continue to be known as the Australia Council.

Creative Australia will expand on and modernise the Australia Council’s work with funding decisions made on the basis of artistic merit and at arm’s length from Government.