Cessnock Advertiser Letters to the Editor: June 27, 2018

This intersection is home to the Heddon Greta Hotel and two bus stops on either side of the main road. The bus stop is mainly used by school children of a morning and afternoon when there is a high amount of pedestrian activity.

At the moment, the only existing traffic control is a give-way for those entering the Main Road from Young Street. There is no pedestrian crossing at this intersection.

I use this intersection regularly and have witnessed the progression of a serious issue. Due to the increased traffic from the Hunter Expressway and population growth in the area, Main Road is extremely congested in peak hour times; between the hours of 7am-9am and 3pm-6pm.

The congestion has created the following issues: Drivers are taking risk in order to enter the Main Road from Young Street; drivers are sometimes forced to drive around the block on roads riddled with potholes; school children and other pedestrians are taking risks to cross the road; drivers travelling on the main road are undertaking vehicles waiting to turn onto Young Street (Including trucks and buses).

I have personally witnessed three minor vehicle accidents at this intersection since the beginning of January 2018. I have not heard of an accident at this intersection where a person was injured, however, it is only a matter of time until somebody is seriously injured or killed.

The risk is real as young pedestrians do not understand road safety and are often unaccompanied. Patrons leaving the pub are sometimes intoxicated and may misjudge when it is safe to cross the road as well.

I have seen politicians and road authorities looking at this intersection and have previously signed petitions to have action taken.

It will only take one impatient or careless driver to take a risk at the wrong time. This is happening daily and people are in immediate danger whilst the intersection is without traffic lights.

Traffic lights are certainly needed in the township of Heddon Greta.

With the Hunter Expressway now well and truly up and running, Heddon Greta is experiencing throughout the week extremely high volumes of traffic.

This traffic problem is particularly bad from 5am ‘til 9.30am and then again from 2pm until well after 7pm.

With news that Testers Hollow is about to receive improvements, this will only increase the traffic flow to and from Maitland using the expressway.

It's only a matter if time before there is a fatal accident because of this problem being overlooked.

We need these traffic lights to help residentS get out onto main road to either Kurri Kurri and Maitland and we need these lights for town's children to get from one side of Heddon Greta to the other safely.

I am an aged avid collector of UK/Australia/NZ stamps. If any of your readers or local companies have unwanted used stamps I will be pleased to receive them to enhance my collections.

Any excess stamps received will be used for charitable organizations and my local philatelic society.

The Advertiser published a story recently detailing Kurri Kurri neuroblastoma survivor Tessa Watterson’s intention to participate in the Run2Cure Neuroblastoma fun run in Sydney early this month. 

Now that the event has taken place, I’m pleased to report that it raised more than $300,000, thanks in part to the involvement of Tessa and her supportive local community. These funds will go directly towards research into safer treatment options for sufferers and our ultimate goal of finding a cure for this rare childhood cancer. 

In addition to fundraising, the event brought thousands of children together to enjoy a fun day out with family and friends. 

It's important to me, as the president of charity Neuroblastoma Australia, to not only see awareness raised about this terrible disease, but for affected families to be able to draw some solace through the support network that we offer nationally. I believe Run2Cure aided in this goal. 

Once again, my sincerest thanks to Tessa and the community for your support of this cause. We welcome anyone and everyone to consider joining us at next year’s Run2Cure Neuroblastoma event in June! Find us at www.neuroblastoma.org.au.

I would like to send a big thank you to the kind person who handed in my brown sunglasses (which I lost while shopping) to the Coles supermarket service counter on the Thursday before last.

I am pleased you did a good turn. Once again, thank you very much from the bottom of my heart, even though they were in a broken state.