Leave the bike trails
In the name of common sense leave the bike trails on Hunchback Hill. At least the kids can ride there in safety.
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The alternative at Huon Hill would mean children would either have to ride their small mountain bikes long distances on very busy roads or wait for some busy adult to drive them, and not many have time to sit idly for an hour or so while the kids have a ride.
Go and have a look yourselves. The tracks are already created and maintained by the group and there is a great deal of land out there for the fauna and flora to survive.
I imagine the fauna and flora on Huon Hill is just as important and would be greatly disturbed by the building of new trails there.
I believe the huge house blocks out West Wodonga must be doing more damage to the environment than kids on bikes.
Mary Pickrill, West Wodonga
Time to deal with it
Bill Whitlam, I commend your grasp on white colonial history (‘Get the Facts Right’, The Border Mail, September 29). Please allow me to inject some more facts into the conversation. “We” are not being “swamped” or “flooded” by anyone. In any case, what a horrible way to speak about fellow human beings. The white Australia act is over, we are a multicultural nation. Deal with it.
Cade Newell, Albury
Disdain for ratepayers
Wodonga's mayor Anna Speedie needs to carefully consider her position given the recent mis-email, on her thoughts about trail bike riding on some of Wodonga's hills.
Her poorly concealed disdain for a ratepayer’s concerns is truly reflective of the current council’s attitude to those who fund its insular and arrogant views.
We note you are always available for a photo shoot however. We don't care about how you felt when you wrote this misdirected email. Food for thought, if the current council has issues with aggressive feedback then look at your own performance in the eye of the long-suffering ratepayers.
Paul Upton, Wodonga
MDBM has job to do
I couldn't get past the comments by Geoff Hensel without comment at the injustice.
The Murray Darling Board of Management is a statutory body about 100 years old with a charter from four government bodies that requires it to acquire and store water for irrigation purposes only. It cannot legally give a precedence to anything else.
Flood mitigation, tourism or property damage prevention is not in its charter.
Farmers and graziers have been reaping the benefits of flood plain grazing since 1835 and the good and the lucky ones flourish, with occasional mishaps. Anyone prepared to try any sort of business on the floodplain without a lot of luck, a strong connection with God or a very indulgent insurance company should be taking their bank manager to lunch on a weekly basis.
On another, but equally relevant natural mini disaster, how prescient is Wednesday’s announcement of power problems in South Australia due to the failure of and total reliance on wind and solar generation.
This in the same week as the announcement of the closure of Hazelwood power station in Victoria, the source of South Australia's back-up to their feel-good power system. Hurrah for clean green tokenism.
Tony Clarke, Lavington
OK to change mind
Most of the time, when politicians change their mind about an issue, the change of opinion is quickly labelled a backflip.
Cathy McGowan has admitted she changed her mind about same-sex marriage after a conversation with a teenager.
Call it a backflip, if you like – and her critics probably will – but we should also remember that only a fool never changes their mind.