Letter writer RON EDGECOMBE, of Rivett, wonders if Andrew Barr’s City Hill land sale is consistent with Walter Burley Griffin’s master plan for the future development of the existing open landscape environs surrounding the lake.

Andrew Barr’s first hard-hat announcement for the year regarding the proposed new City Hill precinct development by Capital Property Group raises a few issues.

Is this development really consistent with Walter Burley Griffin’s master plan for the future development of the existing open landscape environs surrounding Lake Burley Griffin. On the basis of his government’s bastardisation of West Basin through the infill of parts of the lake and high-rise developments in that precinct, one would suggest that this is not the case.

.His comment that the proposed City Hill development is needed to increase revenue for the ACT government is particularly telling. He claimed that the rates increase from the new developments would be used to pay for the light rail projects. I assume that this is stage 2a city-to-lake and phase 2b lake-to-Woden.

.He claimed that the projected rates revenue would be $1 billion over the next decade. This raises the obvious question of how much these light-rail projects are really going to cost the ACT and whether this level of potential revenue for the current debt-ridden government could be better used for more pressing purposes in health, education, law and order, community services, public and community housing etcetera.

.Lastly, his throwaway comment that the new development would result in more people living on City Hill than rabbits raises the obvious question of who are the real rabbits, Andrew?

Ron Edgecombe, Evatt

Fair price for land, but did Barr want more?

Sixty-six million dollars seems a reasonable price for arguably one of the best mixed-use development sites in Canberra, the newly-created 19,000sqm south-west sector of the City Hill precinct (“City Hill land sold for $66m”, citynews.com.au January 20).

However, there was a hint of defensive concern about the price in the chief minister’s announcement of the sale of this territory land, when he went on to say that subsequent on-going rates income from the development would be substantial.

Did the chief minister want more, and is it a case of one rule for big developers and another for prospective new suburban home owners when purchasing land?

An eye-watering $0.5 million is currently being asked for a narrow 400sqm single-house plot in Canberra’s new suburbs – including those developed by the purchaser of the City Hill site, and the ACT Government Land Agency.

The City Hill site has a plot ratio (permitted maximum floor space: site area) of about 4. The suburban block’s plot ratio is around 0.5. Reflecting the city block’s price, the suburban plot should then cost no more than about $120,000 retail to buy, after consideration of factors such as the suburban location, permitted land use, and increasing its footprint to a liveable, say, 600 square metres – yielding a reasonable profit of about 20 per cent.

That’s instead of, the current outrageous cartel-like profit of around 450 per cent, based on a published site development cost here of around $90,000 per new, minuscule, trickle-released suburban block, including the raw land cost, and all civic infrastructure elements required in the new suburb.

Jack Kershaw, Kambah

Beat the cost, join the library

Your article (CN January 16) looking at why reading rates in Australia are falling mentioned, among other factors such as competition from other media forms, that the cost of books now may be prohibitive.

Certainly one has to think twice now before purchasing amidst today’s cost-of-living pressures.

But I was surprised and disappointed that our libraries were not mentioned as a way of overcoming this economic aspect.

Why not join your library?

I am an active member (no charge) and am impressed by the services they provide; how their collection includes keeping up with new releases. If available, a title can be reserved and sent to the branch of your choice. If not, a title can be suggested for purchase. And services go far beyond books to a wide range of community services. All provided in a very welcoming and stimulating environment.

A good New Year’s resolution might be to join your library.

And happy reading to all

Marjorie Crombie, via email

Back off, bus drivers, on the full throttle

I recall as a child riding government buses into Newcastle city centre in 1963 on shopping days with my mother and grandmother.

There was apparently a lot less money thrown at buses 60 years ago, as the ’60s buses looked for all the world like they were relics of the wartime ’40s. In fact, many apparently were exactly that.

The back corner of the bus was open to the weather, and passengers sometimes stood there holding on to a single vertical pole – and the bus conductor would allow this as often as not!

One memorable shopping day, the bus was visited alternately by puffs of damp air and oily diesel fumes. It shook and shuddered quite remarkably as the wheezy, weak engine struggled (literally) to climb even modest grades.

And thus standing on the open platform at the back was actually less dangerous than it sounds, as a fully occupied bus would battle its way up to 40km/h between stops, and climb hills in low gear at barely jogging pace! And the ancient brakes were as gradual as the engine!

All of which brings me, meandering, to the point of my letter. We would never trade our aircon, wifi, weatherproof Canberra buses of 2025 for the almost Dickensian buses of 60 and 70 years ago; but at least you could stand in those buses, make your way to find a seat, or get ready to disembark without being hurled backwards, forwards or sideways by engines with hundreds of horsepower and colossal amounts of torque.

As an elderly person, I am very dismayed at the happy-go-lucky attitude of some Canberra bus drivers with regard to exuberantly applying the accelerator, steering and brakes when today’s powerful buses are nearly empty and thus responding like a sports car to this ham-fisted driving style.

All jokes aside, the forces on a passenger making their way from, or to, the door can be excessive – and a real risk to the elderly and infirm.

If we really need those hundreds of horsepower for heavily-laden express bus routes along Tuggeranong Parkway, then – please, please – can we teach our bus drivers that full throttle must never be applied to an unladen bus for sake of the comfort and safety of vulnerable passengers, and that braking and cornering must likewise be kept in check?

Ross Kelly, Monash

Issue of the tram is dated and hyper-costly

I agree with Beatrice Bodart-Bailey and Dr Jenny Stewart (Letters, CN, January 23) on the issue of the tram, which is both dated and hyper-costly.

Its installation has turned the once beautiful “grand boulevard” that was Northbourne Avenue into unsightly “gardens” of what appear to be weeds either side of a heat-absorbing strip of concrete and steel.

The cost of the stage 2b extension to Woden has not been revealed, but, given the probable cost of stage 2a (about $1.5 billion), is likely to be about $10 billion. Just a new span of Commonwealth Avenue Bridge for the tram is likely to cost $1 billion or more.

On the issue of lessons to learn from the Los Angeles fires raised by Ms Bodart-Bailey, it should be borne in mind that the seasonal and geographic settings of LA are totally different to those of Canberra.

The catastrophic LA fires occurred in mid-winter, and were fanned to blow-torch-like heat and power by the Santa Ana (“devil”) winds generated by the roasting heat of the Mojave Desert and “turbocharged” by the valleys and canyons on the western flank of the Sierra Nevada Ranges.

The Brindabella range west of Canberra does cause some katabatic acceleration of the prevailing westerly and north-westerly winds, and contributed to the disastrous 2003 firestorm, but they are trivial compared to the Santa Ana winds. However, there is no justification for complacency in alertness to fire, or for scrimping on fire-fighting capability.

Dr Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin

Rates have risen 100 per cent, why?

We have only dimly realised our rates have gone up by 100 per cent. How the ACT government can justify such a rate hike is beyond us.

In 2024, our quarterly rates bill was $1004.50. Now, magically, it is $2030.35 a quarter. Has the government paved Bandjalong Crescent with gold?

We have wondered if the government has a secret campaign to force older Aranda residents out of their homes by pushing up the rates. However a 100 per cent rate rise is ludicrous and an over-the-top-rate hike.

Julian and Karna O’Dea, Aranda

Messing with voters’ minds

On the back of a solid, recent nine-year history of Coalition waste, missed opportunities, well documented rorting, program deficiencies, flim-flam policy offerings, growing inequalities and clear lurching to the right, Peter Dutton and co are using a lazy campaign approach that treats the voting public as unintelligent and easily misinformed (“Dutton’s ‘soft launch’ comes without answers”, citynews.com.au January 13).

Someone must have received a big bonus for crafting the Coalition’s newly announced “12 priorities” with their chains of broad “doing” words that are followed by nebulous descriptors. All of which can then be very selectively interpreted and minimally addressed by the two minority parties according to their always highly secretive governing agreement and expectations of shared post-election booty and useful pay backs, should they share power again soon.

The shortcomings in the priorities listing certainly provide quick and easy ammunition that can be rolled out in many oversimplistic and misleading ways by the conservative parties’ handy anti-teal and anti-Labor bedfellows, Advance, and Australians for Prosperity. The conservatives’ communications consultants will be angling for record bonuses, too .

Sue Dyer, Downer

The forgotten inquiry into nuclear power

In the debate on nuclear versus renewables it seems to be being forgotten that the Labor government in October launched a parliamentary inquiry into nuclear power, to report by April 30, and this was supported by the Opposition.

If this is inconclusive, or if there happens to be a federal election in the meantime, obviously we would all vote no to nuclear (and Dutton) as we would not know.

Richard Johnston, Kingston

Nuclear v. wind, but whatever happened to… 

Everyone is debating nuclear power versus solar and wind. Whatever happened to hydro?

Patrick Garratt, via email