The Beast's Monthly Mailbag Words The Wonderful People of the Eastern Suburbs BRONTE CUTTING LIGHTING PROPOSAL There are lots of things I would love to see Waverley Council spending its money on - fixing our potholed roads, sporting facilities for kids, affordable housing and getting rid of weeds from the verges and parks all leap to mind. Instead, it seems determined to spend the money raised from ratepayers and visitors on solving non-existent problems. The latest example is its proposal to light Bronte Cutting at night. Perhaps it worries that walking there is dangerous? It absolutely isn’t. Hardly anyone goes there and those that do are happy to rely on the moon or a torch to light their way. Or is the concern cars? The odd car may pass by those out walking, but cars have headlights, the very purpose of which is to allow drivers to see what lies ahead of them. Council’s concern can’t be antisocial behaviour either, because that is not currently a problem. However, the addition of lighting may lead to it becoming a problem as more people may be attracted to the area at night. If Council believes that Bronte Cutting is so dangerous that it must be lit up like a fun fair, then what about the entire coastal walk, or the cemetery, or Centennial and Queens Parks? Of course those places shouldn’t be lit up, and neither should this. It’s a lovely thing to wander through the Cutting and into Calga
10 The Beast March 2021
Reserve at night to enjoy the darkness of the sky and to watch the moon shining on the ocean. Council should leave things as they are so people can continue to enjoy one of Sydney’s few dark sky areas. Regards, Penelope Bronte BRONTE CUTTING LIGHTING What is it with Waverley Council? They seem to have so much money - maybe a night at the casino could help with that. How else can we explain their constant desire to fix things that are not broken? The latest brilliant idea is to light up the Bronte Cutting. They just can’t leave it alone. It used to look like a quiet country road. First they put a sentry box at the bottom and a boom gate at the top. It all went rusty and seemed to stop working so they took it away. Then they put in parking lines, car detectors and solar operated parking meters. Then, more recently, they covered up half of that with the temporary footpath, ostensibly to complete the coastal walk. You have to wonder about all this. Now they want to extend the footpath up to Macpherson Street… Why? It’s not even a part of the Coastal Walk. There’s a number of alternate routes. To add insult to injury, they want to include lighting up the Cutting like a Christmas
tree. Why? They seem to have completely forgotten that it’s a heritage item. So why this relentless attack on the historical Cutting, a treasured part of the local heritage, and why the repeated waste of money, with each new project covering up and demolishing the last? Couldn’t they use the money for something useful? Surely there are parts of our LGA that could do with some of that money? It really makes you wonder what’s next. Will they try to light up the entire coastal path? What about the wildlife? What about all the poor little creatures that try to live alongside the coastal path they must be saying to each other, “Are the humans determined to light up every square inch of the globe? I can’t get a good night’s sleep.” And what about sustainability - what is the environmental footprint of this pointless lighting? There is already too much clutter and light pollution along the coastal path and in the Bronte Cutting. Please do not add any more and please stop wasting money. Chris Bronte LET THEM RUN FREE Joining the ranks of curmudgeonly old people with a tea cosy on my head, I write to express my bemusement at the Macca’s dog ban. 83 per cent of respondents to the council survey were in favour of dogs - a dream for any political party. I accept that some of the objections by the 17 per cent minority (dog faeces, scared kiddies) have some validity. Those objections are substantially outweighed by the sheer joy that a dog swim at Macca’s engenders for owners and dogs alike. I have not seen any scared kiddies, but I have seen a lot of delighted ones. Rarely have I seen dog faeces, but my experience has been that dog owners are overwhelmingly responsible about that issue, anywhere. Properly analysed, Council said no because;
