Your coverage of the “Narooma, Kianga and Dalmeny Flood Study” (July 15) has highlighted that Eurobodalla and Government planners have failed to take into account the substantial hydraulic changes  prior to and during the course of the study.

Repeated calls to the general manager for evidence that hydraulic and environmental impact studies had been carried out prior to the works on the Flat as late as last week have been ignored.

Questions raised during the recent council “Row in Meetings” at Narooma revealed that many of these vital factors had been ignored.

It took a recent rainfall event below locally registered historic falls to highlight the problems associated with these works.

Your article has revealed the capacity of some drainage is being doubled up and in some cases with individual pipes nearly three times the capacity of existing pipes.

In some areas the velocity and volume of run off has been increased by new works above the Flat and Services Club.

It’s your guess what will happen on the flat when rain of significance attempts to overcome a twice daily high tide through under capacity open drains and tidal flaps near Riverview Drive.

If Councillors approve this report of challengeable historic and scientific facts without a peer review they will have opened the floodgates for introduction of more punitive planning sea level rise policies.

It will be the precursor of another three reports, namely a Flood Plain Risk Management Study, Risk Management Plan and finally an Implementation Plan – all centred on a flawed report with cherry picked references and continue to employ “in and out of house experts” with the ever ending job of predicting our future.

Based on the time taken to prepare the Flood Study we will be half way through the current Eurobodalla Council Planning Sea Level Rise with 100 year Flood Scenario and another Ice Age predicted by imminent scientist Valentia Zharkova. (The Australian 15/7/2015)

There will be no need for an elevated Narooma bridge, underpass and complementary life-saving snorkels and flippers from our mayor and loved Member, Andrew Constance.

The up-market Federal Member, Mr Hendy will supply us with warm “budgie  snugglers” and ice skates autographed by Tony.

The combination of being frizzled by the sun, flooded, drowned by the sea, blinded by cosmic rays and with body parts frozen off like those on a brass a monkey is quite worrying.

All this will reach the point of no return and happen within the next 15 years with me gargling: “Will you still need me when I am 95.”

Peter Bernard

Dalmeny

Running in a Kenyan marathon

My son Don, who is teaching in Kenya, competed in the annual Half Marathon race in the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy last month.

Although he trained for the event and is superbly fit he found it gruelling but very inspiring.

Not just an ordinary marathon, but one that  runs  through a conservation wildlife park in order to raise money for animal protection, so as to benefit the environment, and  the livelihood of people in rural areas.

The event, for which participants have to raise $1,000 in order to compete, attracts runners from all over the world, and takes place along bush tracks in undulating country at a high altitude within sight of Mt Kenya.

The heavily protected 61,000-acre wildlife park is home to rhinos, elephants, giraffes, zebra, lions and other wild animals.

Runners in turn are protected by helicopters and spotter planes, which buzz dangerous animals, but most animals don’t venture near the competitors.

D.B. from Cornwall wrote facetiously, “There are crowds of spectators at the beginning and end, but don’t expect crowd support all the way as they might have been eaten.”

How ironic that in Kenya the people have learned the moral and financial importance of caring for their animals, while here at Narooma’s festival of hunting on the Nature Coast of New South Wales we appear to the world to be condoning local and overseas animal shooting safaris.

Shoot with a camera. Not with a gun!

Susan Cruttenden

Dalmeny

Mayor's say… Supporting our youngest residents, and our oldest

There was bubble blowing, ball throwing, obstacles tackled and stories told.

No, it wasn’t a livelier than usual council meeting, but our first supported playgroup last week in Tuross Head.

The playgroups will be held fortnightly in Tuross Head and Moruya, with five more locations to be announced soon.

Our Children’s Services staff have been working hard to get the new program up and running since the Australian Government announced in May that council would receive $800,000 over five years to operate seven supported playgroups.

In that time, we have been talking with other early childcare providers and playgroups in the region to work out the best locations and formats for the supported playgroups and to maximise this funding for the benefit of Eurobodalla families.

The playgroups are called 3Bs, for Belonging, Being, and Becoming. They’re free - thanks to the Australian Government funding - and delivered by council’s professional educators.

They provide a great opportunity for families to have fun together while preparing young children for school and offering support for parents as their child's first teacher.

3Bs brings another important dimension to our Children’s Services offerings.

Our Family Day Care program is celebrating 25 years of quality child care this year and currently provides care for more than 180 children across the shire.

Our after school and vacation care programs offer supervised and fun activities for children aged 5-12 years at our three centres in Batemans Bay, Moruya and Narooma and are highly valued by the shire’s working parents.

Council also offers services for young people as part of our strategy for a liveable community.

We have youth cafes in Batemans Bay and Narooma, regular events for young people such as skateboarding competitions, and two musical festivals coming up later this year - Groovin the Shire and Indent.

Our youth committee, made up of young people from Eurobodalla high schools, drive this activity and let us know what is important to them.

They attend formal meetings which provide an opportunity for them to learn about leadership and teamwork and to provide a youth perspective on Council activities.

In September, the committee is hosting the 2015 NSW Youth Council Conference in Batemans Bay where young people from across NSW share ideas and learn about creating positive changes in their communities. What a fantastic achievement for these young people and great exposure for the region.

At the other end of the age spectrum, a very sad story in last week’s Bay Post about one of our older residents who fell in her home and was not found for six days has prompted me to join the call for older people to wear an alarm pendant.

I also encourage everyone to keep an eye out for their neighbours. I know there are lots of wonderful people in our shire who do this already, either formally through programs like TeleCross, or informally by having their own systems in place.

A friend of mine has an elderly neighbour who raises her venetian blind halfway up to signal she is out of bed and drawn when going to bed. Whatever works!

Please let me know if there are any issues that council can assist with. You can contact me at mayor@eurocoast.nsw.gov.au or phone 0418 279 215.

Clr Lindsay Brown

Mayor of Eurobodalla Shire