Blatant disregard and disrespect was shown to the community response.

At council’s listening post in Ayres Walkeway I was asked by a woman what I was doing. She said “you are wasting your time, they won’t listen”.

How true was that statement?

It would appear some councillors are determined to have that clock tower removed and traffic lights installed in that intersection, supposedly to speed up traffic flow in Carp St because of the hospital.

Council is requesting two specific reports.

Should both those reports be deemed feasible and in council’s favour, the clock tower will be removed and traffic lights installed without further consultation with the public.

I say leave the clock tower and forget lights – unless council is prepared to investigate the possibility of lights being installed without moving the tower.

But that’s not the point. The determination is to move the clock tower.

Perhaps it’s time the community spoke up more loudly with people power and perhaps a TV camera or two.

I must respond to the letter about a “long time” for patients to see a doctor in the South East Regional Hospital emergency department.

As a pastoral carer of some 12 years, having chaired hospital committees and spent many years in the planning of this hospital, I feel I can and should reply.

When you arrive at an emergency ward at any hospital you are assessed and placed in a waiting room. Your injury may or may not be life threatening.

Let’s take the case of a split head – you may be next to see a doctor or nurse, but there is a three-car crash, two are flown in and at the same time a man is admitted with a heart attack.

The doctor or nurse unit manager must quickly assess the situation – the heart attack patient is doing badly and the staff are having difficulties keeping him alive.

At the same time the two accident patients are bleeding in a bad way, again life is at risk.

So the split head patient is “bumped” down the list and depending on the other three patients, time for her care is unknown.

Every parent believes their son/daughter is the most precious in the world and of course demands they be see immediately – this is human nature.

In emergency wards the staff have to assess the injuries of each patient to the seriousness and life-threatening nature, so they reluctantly bump people down the line, possibly resulting in a long wait.

I assure you that staff at this new hospital are the finest you can obtain and with the new hospital having the best, most up-to-date equipment on the market, you are i good hands.

They hate to think a child can be asked to wait, but the stark reality is an emergency department can go from a completely calm ward to complete drama in a few seconds.

I’m telling this mainly to the council that repairs paths and such.

The corner at the end of Meringo and Upper Streets is used by a lot of people as a shortcut to the highway and Carp St.

The track has a lot of ruts on it and I have twisted my foot on several occasions.

If you could put in a cement path, which should not take more than a couple of days, it would fix the problem.