The private sector is also showing confidence with recent approvals for 3-6 storey apartment buildings and town houses.

But all this good work will be undone if Council approves a new DA for a 10-storey apartment building on the temporary car site at Yacaaba and Donald streets.

Tower blocks of this height are not only double the current height limit but are completely out of character for Nelson Bay, as the community keeps saying loud and clear.  In 2017, Council inexplicably approved a similar height tower block on Church St, and yet the crane sits idle a year later.

If Council continues to allow such buildings, either on the Yacaaba Street site or elsewhere in the town, it will only bring more holiday apartments empty for most of the year, and not the permanent residents that we all want to see.

Towers will also block existing views, overshadow large areas and compound the parking problem. All those who care about the future of our town, and who are getting behind all the good things that are finally starting to happen, need to object to this DA (2018-386) by July 13.

When politicians, Council and Port Stephens residents are considering the Fingal Bay bypass position, I would like to remind them of the position I, and many other residents are asking these collective brains consider.

The continuation of Austral Street to Government Road, Shoal Bay - where a roundabout can be situated and would allow traffic to go to Shoal Bay shopping centre, down Government Road or down Tomaree Road or straight to Fingal.

This route is on [Hunter Water] land, bypasses three other bypass routes and would not be as expensive.

I'm writing to ask if you or your readers know [how] to [obtain] descent, modern, quarry-truck proof roads on the Tilligerry Peninsular?

For heavens sake, the Romans built roads like Dere and Walting Streets both around 300 kilometres long and both with parts which can still be travelled today.

Yet here, we have new sections of road that last until the first rains and/or half dozen 60 ton quarry truck pass over them.

Granted those responsible for road construction do get some things right. For instance, the work on the new round about at the intersection of Lemon Tree Passage road and the Avenue of the Allies required a temporary side road to maintain public access while they do the up grade. And temporary it was – the new paved surface lasted a little more than 12 hours before rain created pot holes big enough to loose a Subaru in.

Lemon Tree Passage road consists of a series of pot hole patches which join together to create what the council believes to be a safe, single access road for the entire peninsular.

Port Stephens has a major industry with the sand mined in the region. The transport of these products destroys our roads as these juggernauts lay waist to everything under tyre. Why doesn't the council place a tariff or excise on the quarry owners of 5 cents per tonne excavated?

This would raise tens of thousands each and every year. Naturally, the quarry operators will argue that such an excise would not be financially sustainable, in which case the state government could restrict new mine approvals for a time.

This would not only benefit the Port Stephens residents but those of all NSW with less of our countryside destroyed by more mining. All of the money raise from this excise could then go into road improvements and maintenance, making our roads safer for everyone.

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