IT’S surprising, and perhaps even a little ominous in some regards, that a cloak of silence has, at least publicly, wrapped around the negotiations for our local government area to be the final destination for Sydney’s garbage.
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Not a word that we’ve noticed since late last year when Energy Australia announced it has been in talks with the government to accept huge amounts of waste for incineration in the Mt Piper boilers – talks that had bypassed Lithgow Council.
Even the usually vocal lobby groups in the Blue Mountains seem oblivious to the potential for endless garbage convoys through the World Heritage Area.
Probably gone unnoticed by green groups because the word ‘coal’ wasn’t mentioned anywhere. So what’s going on behind the scenes? The community is entitled to be informed and given the opportunity for input before the deal is signed, sealed and delivered behind closed doors.
Our pubs with no beer
EVEN Slim Dusty would be left wondering at what’s going on with Lithgow’s pubs with no beer. The iconic Court House Hotel was sold and ceased operations well over a year ago with promises of an early revival following renovations. Now way down the track the ‘for sale’ signs have gone up again with The Professionals seeking a buyer.
Further down town Tatts Hotel shut its doors months ago and was subject of a mortgagee sale. But there are still no signs of life and there are unconfirmed reports circulating that the old watering hole is back on the market.
We’d like to think there was an opportunity for Woolworths to return to their plan years ago to acquire the pub to provide a Main Street frontage. Meantime it’s just a pity that someone wouldn’t take responsibility for cleaning up the disgusting mass of pigeon poo in and around the entrance alcove. It has to be a health hazard.
Treeless means soulless
IS there any greenery planned as part of the Lithgow CBD ‘revitalisation’?
The program has seen something of a ‘tree genocide’ with only two surviving the hatchet job. There’s a giant eucalypt in Cook Plaza and a lonely tree in Eskbank Street and, according to people who claim a degree of knowledge on these things, both are doomed due to extensive disturbance of the root system. Hopefully someone will tell us that’s just not so and there will be mass plantings to relieve the so far soulless expanses of concrete.
Sadly lacking
WRIGHTS Road resident Wayne Allan is disappointed no one has taken any notice of the weed problem on the traffic islands around our not so tidy Tidy Town.
One of the most prominent locations is at the busy intersection of Hassans Walls Road and Lithgow Street where, Wayne correctly points out, the problem would be solved in less than a minute with a whipper snipper.
