The busy holiday seasons are over, yet holiday rental homes and others continue to turn up the music especially at weekends. These parties often start late afternoon and continue for eight or more hours.

Holiday homes are attractive to people who don't want to disturb their own neighbours and instead come to Boat Harbour or Anna Bay where they don't care about the local residents. Surely if you are hosting a large gathering with a nightclub atmosphere, can't you hire a purpose-built venue?

Our residents have been patient but when it is week after week, we just can't keep losing sleep and sanity.

Regarding the story 'Open the Floodgates' (Examiner, April 22), while Port Stephens Council (or any council for that matter) continues to allow the sale of flood-prone land, the issue of associated DAs will continue to be a revolving door.

Council has no problem allowing the land to be continually bought and sold, but if there are so many conditions to building, therefore making it cost prohibitive to the applicant - they should stop it now. Purchasers will be stuck with the land and not able to do anything with it; the council will put them through heartache and financial loss, yet will still take their rates.

If Port Stephens Council wants the revolving door to stop; start buying back the flood-prone land as soon as it comes up for sale. And yes, much of the problem is probably a legacy issue from years ago, but the council has the ability to resolve it now - they just have to be willing, take the lead and hopefully other councils would follow the example.

Sadly there has been extensive damage to critical pedestrian links at Corlette from March's huge rain event.

Foreshore Drive culvert needs an immediate fix; a landslip on the lower track of the Corlette Headland iconic walk through to The Anchorage has wiped out the handrails and path; Bartlett Cycleway used by hundreds each day has muddy and pooled patches; the steep access to the beach for 300 residences in Vantage Estate now has dangerous gullies at Bagnall Beach access and the Kalaroo Street access also has a slip and is closed. Pathways are overgrown. These are all treasured access for locals and tourists and fixing them should not be kicked down the road. They are all so easy to ignore as they are not visible from the main roads which the council officers and councillors traverse. Get out of your vehicles and walk. Out of sight should not be out of mind.

After reading the lovely story (Walking bus a story of success for Irrawang, Examiner, News, May 6) I was reminded of when I walked about 6.5 kilometres to school back in 1944 from Smithfield to Greystanes school.

I was first and as we walked along, collected a few more including our infants teacher whom everybody loved. She too taught us many things including all about the blue moon we could see. Those three years were very special to me.

Congratulations to Port Stephens Council for taking the streetscape of Shoal Bay out of the 50s and 60s and into the 21st century with the introduction of the, in my opinion, well received parklets.

The loss of a few parking spots (there is a huge parking facility 50 metres away) is minimal compared to the benefits. A little long-term vision can achieve great things.

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