If you strip away all present buildings, many prime sites are downhill or even in what would be gullies in the past compared to the present Myer building (modern precedent and minimum height yardstick) so why all the fuss?

The Verge Hotel should have been at least another three stories higher to make it look right and fit in.

We talk 10 storeys and a small number of people who are hell bent on keeping us in the 1880s get in a flap.

The ceiling heights inside the Myer building are nearly twice that of other proposed buildings so 12 stories should be the minimum norm .

Truth be known, almost half of Launceston has some form of contamination from the industrial age. Churchill Park Drive was once a tip site, is anyone sick down here?

No, let's stop making excuses to manufacture an economic depression and stick to the text . If you are representing Launceston Heritage not Highrise, do so and leave the other business to the experts before someone buys the site and bulldozes the lot and turns it into a ground level car park.

PAST chairman of the Flood Authority Alan Birchmore is spot on with his comments about raking.

Raking ahead of flood events greatly increases the amount of silt removed from the system.

It is effective and low-cost but only ahead of flood events (raking otherwise fills in the channel). Comments on returning water from the tailrace are ill-conceived.

You only need to see the silt build up at the tailrace to realise it will not make a difference.

I am on the water three to four days a week and there has been a massive build-up of silt since the 2016 floods.

The current approach seems to be focused only on water quality, not removing mud and maintaining a usable river.

MY GOSH it beggars belief that we have to lobby the federal government to move them, to protect a vital part of our democracy, freedom of the press.

Without question we always need frank, honest, probing reporting and continued updates on current affairs. It is a travesty that this support is not voluntarily offered by the federal government.

I find respected journalist Ray Martin highlights the points we need to follow. I will most certainly be contacting our federal members. I already subscribe to digital print to The Examiner, a wonderful innovation.

I am constantly purchasing products of value sourced from The Examiner advertising. This is not the time to hesitate, it is too late when we have lost our journalist voices.

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