However, the proposed changes in North Riverside are most concerning.

North Riverside (as close as 6km from the CBD) will no longer be serviced by Metro; instead replaced by Manions Coaches.

Currently Manions charge $4.40 for a full ticket on its cheapest route, as opposed to $2.80 for urban Metro Greencard holders.

For someone who presently makes a return journey to the CBD from North Riverside each weekday on Metro they are out of pocket $1,456 annually.

If the Manions rate of $4.40 is applied this increases by $832 to $2,288.

Are North Riverside's bus-frequenting residents going to be subjected to a 57 per cent increase in bus fares by the Department of State Growth? Residents have been given no information.

STEVE Saunders' letter regarding electric cars (The Examiner, May 31)

mentions that Tesla now builds semis. I would like to know what these cost?

As the first electric car that Tesla built cost the price of a four-bedroom house. Mind you it can travel a distance of three hundred miles. Quite out of the reach of the average tradesman.

Most electric cars produced in today's climate are limited in the distance they can travel. I suppose that is why the government are going to put a refilling station at Campbell Town.

TOURISM they say is the way ahead for Tasmania and that's not to say it isn't already.

The figures say we get 1,500,00 people each year to the state, a lot of people are saying when is too much enough.

I'm not saying go down the Greens argument and restrict numbers to certain areas but the figures are saying we are getting three times our local population.

It's already affecting our produce such as crayfish, abalone, wood, and not to mention, our farm produce.

I can remember my mother cooking a bag of crays that we got from a relative from the East Coast for a side of venison, now you can't even afford one crayfish.

My uncle was a bushman and a sawmiller and I was surprised that he supported some of the Greens ideas as to the clear felling of timbers, so he was against Gunns' Pulp Mill.

Also, what happens when the bubble bursts and we are not the flavour of the month such as the mid North Coast of NSW where every second motel is closed due to lack of business, I don't know how you would police such a policy but tourists are already being called terrorists in some parts of the state.

WHO am I to argue with ex-footballers like Peter and Paul Hudson, Paul Sproule, Rodney Eade and developer Errol Stewart on matters such as a Tasmanian AFL football team, but I cannot see how having played AFL at the top level gives anyone a champion's claim of possessing a greater level of common sense than an ordinary bloke like me.

Together with those in state government giving money to have these oldies to come up with a suitable team plan is, I feel, quite foolish.

A 2010 Exercise, Recreation and Sport Survey presented to Northern Midlands Council in the plan to develop Campbell Town's Memorial Oval clearly demonstrates that AFL football is quickly falling in popularity to ninth place behind walking, aerobics/fitness, swimming, cycling, bushwalking, running, golf and cricket.

Hardly an endorsement for spending millions of dollars on a sport that was once very popular.

IT seems Nationals Senator Steve Martin will not be re-elected.Though only in the Senate for a short time, Senator Martin secured federal grant funding valued around $200 million for a list of local government priorities as long as my arm.

This I suspect is new money to Tasmania and with an economic multiplier effect of 1.4, the actual flow on benefit to Tasmania's economy will be an extra $80 million, bringing the total effect to at least $280 million.

This new revenue will increase the demand for local goods and services, help generate new jobs and support local businesses.

In regards to the office; if I got a return 529 times greater than my investment and help Tasmanians, I'd do it every day of the week.

I can now only imagine what additional benefits Steve Martin would have bought to Tasmania had we given him another six years.

I TAKE my puppy for an early morning walk around the Seaport.

Several times in the last week or so, with the temperature around or below freezing point, the boardwalk was far too slippery with ice accumulation to walk on.

There is nothing we can do about the ice, but I do think the council should have permanent warning signs at each entrance to the boardwalk and over the pedestrian bridge.