Thanks to the Echo
Dear Echo News,

Just a note of thanks to your journalist Jacki Elezovich, for a great story and picture in the Echo of our tourist historical accommodation Strelley Brook Farmhouse last month.

Great story Overture moves to Herne Hill (Echo News, September 6) which garnered lots of interest for our wonderful Swan Valley.

Super professional, accommodating and personable and able to get a story from our scant details and excited ramblings about Brian Brown coming to film.

Thank you for all your efforts.

L&R McCrae
Herne Hill

No sleep with Metronet night works
Dear Echo News,

The impact of sleep deprivation on myself and family is an issue with a past. I will be 77-years-old in a few weeks, have suffered severe trauma many times.

I also have had a very poor health record that hospitalises me two or three times a year.

That said, over the past months we have witnessed Metronet works impacting on us all, from the initial Railway Parade drainage works and changes to original plans, a very dangerous intersection where each day we witness vehicles driving at speed through the no-entry signage travelling in an easterly direction, pedestrians attempting to cross Cale Street towards the Railway Station without the safety of a traffic island, and much more.

The works outside of our townhouse during this period, including the use of a 10 tonne vibrating roller, road laying equipment and then the works on the Cale Street Crossing, have meant for us sleepless nights with light pouring into our rooms from the light pole outside of our place, and the constant sounds of generators, trucks, loaders and rollers.

During the recent shutdown of the crossing, we heard the grinders and generators day and night.

Of course, we were told that the suburban rail lines couldn’t be laid at the same time during the shutdown, so we now expect yet another disruption to our daily lives.

Our lived experience through all of this is one of calamity followed by excuses and yet another calamity.
Bureaucratic shadow play fails to recognise our situation and human needs.

We can’t afford to sell up and move elsewhere, not at my age, and we genuinely looked forward to progress.

We have made it very clear that we do not want such progress to stop but would appreciate a glimpse of compassion and understanding from Metronet workers on the ground, and those who make the decisions from the comfort of their offices overlooking the CBD.
Constant light, sound and vibrations are the enemy of peaceful living, and are generally used as a means to torture.
Our local member for Midland has not attended anything or said anything constructive to assist her constituents.

The City of Swan operate as minimalists, only there for our rates, and WA Development are more akin to landed gentry who make economic choices that punish rather than heal.

All in all, my wife is keeping me alive, as I totter on the brink of another disastrous period of sleeplessness and trauma in my retirement, and she has just booked a six-day short break away in a couple of weeks to help me recover a little.

She alone knows the signs and signals of PTSD, with my attendant intensity and anger at what is happening to us right now.
Please do not neglect us, we are not your enemies, we are just looking to live the rest of our lives out here in Midland, in our community, in peace.

B Steels
Midland

Elephant in the room
Dear Echo News,

I watched a very good Q&A on Monday night – about our health system and its attempts to deal with an overwhelming number of issues, all of which needed more resources than are available.

Some very erudite and knowledgeable people participated but every one of them suffered from cognitive dissonance.
None spoke of the real problem – the elephant in the room – which is the need for more taxes to be raised to pay for the health system we need.

The same can be said for education too.

If we don’t raise sufficient taxes we’re stuck with second-rate services.

That’s a simple statement of fact.

If we improve services, we will probably save money in the long run.

That’s a simple statement of opinion, but given my 40-odd years as an economist and financial analyst, you can trust my judgment on that.

We will save money.

The real problem is that those who have the means to pay for their health and education needs aren’t interested in paying more taxes.

There’s your real problem, Australia.

It’s called greed and it demonstrates worse than cognitive dissonance – it’s a basic lack of civic and economic understanding.

P Carman
Hovea