New Blog on Local Issues

It's good to see that the Beecroft Cheltenham Civic Trust has started a blog, to enable them more rapidly to report on major issues affecting Beecroft and Cheltenham residents.
The blog's address is BCCT2119.blogspot.com, if you want to be kept informed on issues like the M2 Widening Project and the Hornsby Shire Housing Strategy, I suggest you become a follower of their blog.

Selling the family silver continued

For a great read, go to:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw-act/eric-roozendaal-flees-his-dud-power-deal/comments-e6freuzi-1225971781002

78 comments all with one recurring theme - condemning the labour state government for shamelessly selling off taxpayer assets in the dying days of their time in power!

About the most charitable comment was this one:
"Since parliament will not meet again until after the election, why do election conventions not apply here. Election conventions ensure that no major decision is made that will bind the next government. Even though the election has not yet been called, the convention should apply." Surely that convention should also have applied to the recent signing of the contract for the M2 Widening Project.

Three months ago this blog posted a letter from Richard Talbot on this topic, and it seems everything he forecast is coming to pass.

Kirkham Bridge Update

According to the BCCT, Transurban does plan to close the Kirkham Road bridge over the M2! The closure would be "at least six months", but a lot of Beecroft and Cheltenham residents are doubtful about that promise, remembering what happened with the Copeland Road bridge across the railway. What is most worrying is the statement "Hornsby Council has been unsuccessful in their attempt to get the operators to establish alternatives". There should be no discussion on this, the approved plan calls for single lane working, why are the authorities seemingly powerless to enforce that plan?
Closure could happen as soon as January 2011, and it has been suggested that the required "public consultation" will be initiated late in December with submissions closing early in January. Democracy? Come on Kristina, you signed off on this project when you were Planning Minister, now enforce what you signed off on!
Meanwhile everybody should be writing to their MP, State and National, to the RTA, and to Transurban and anyone else, to make clear our concern at what would be a gross abuse of democracy.

No Mandate to Sell Electricity

Taxpayers are suddenly waking up to the fact that one of our biggest remaining assets has been quietly sold off! Presumably the money will be used to pork barrel before the election in a last ditch attempt to sway the more gullible members of the electorate!

Empty Nesters

The number of couples living without children at home is about to outstrip those with kids, for the first time in a very long time. The Australian Bureau of Statistics report showing this says the ageing population and increasing number of empty nesters will contribute to a steep rise in households without children.

Swan's Bank Reforms

Perhaps the best comment on the long-awaited bank reforms was by Terry McCrann in the daily telegraph. "It takes a very special kind of stupid to craft something that is both pointless and destructive."

Better Homes Realty

In November Better Homes was advertising a property in Cheltenham Road for $700,000 prior to auction, but after it was passed in they increased the price to a more realistic $875,000. I thought that method of conning would-be buyers into paying for building surveys was actually against the law?

Sales Agreements

In October I reported on a McGrath exclusive sales agreement that requires vendors to give thirty days notice of terminating the agreement. What the vendor telling me this didn't know was that, once you give that notice, McGrath remove the sign from outside the property and take the listing off the internet! Meanwhile the agency agreement is still in force and the owner can't risk signing up with anyone else!

PS Soon after posting the above, McGrath sent the vendor a letter releasing him from the agency agreement, but including the phrase "if the property is purchased by somebody that has been introduced by McGrath (agency name) during the period (dates of the original contract) or within the next 90 days commencing (date of this letter) a commission fee of (commission in the contract) will be payable on completion of the sale."
Taken to its extreme, this allows McGrath to claim the full commission if anybody who entered their office over this entire seven month period ever buys the property at any time into the distant future!
The only redeeming feature is that the paragraph does not specify to whom the commission is to be paid, so the vendor would meet this 'obligation' by paying commission to the agency that negotiates the sale!
Even without that flaw in the wording, I am assured that this sort of open ended 'payment for nothing' clause would never be enforced by a court, but it has caused deep distress to the vendor.

Rates on Hold this Month

The Reserve Bank has left the official cash rate on hold at 4.75%. Given the dramatic fall in value of house sales that followed the unexpected rise in November, this is good news indeed for owners of houses in Australia.

Green Offset in Hornsby Shire Planning

Greens Councilor Andrew Martin of Hornsby Shire Council writes an interesting letter for the Monthly Chronicle, on the topic of Green Offsets used by the Council when assessing Development Applications. He is concerned that several established areas of Blue Gum High Forrest have been "offset" for relatively small sums, $10,000 or $20,000, which of course are trivial in relation to the enhanced value of the development once the trees are removed.
Under the Green Offset policy, the DA is approved on the understanding that the removed Blue Gum will be replaced with perhaps four sapplings in another area. But Clr Martin points out that the result is a gradual removal of vegetation from building plots into existing already vegetated reserves, which will adversely change the character and quality of our suburbs forever.

Questions about M2 Financing

Here is an interesting comment off the internet, relating to the recently announced new financing for the M2 Widening project:
“Out of $740 million of new loans given by banks to Transurban, $465m are only for refinancing old M2 debt, leaving just $275 m for a project which costs $550 m to build. Where will the other $275 m come from? Transurban already sits on a mountain of debt which is continuously being rolled over (or should we say tolled over), but not paid back."