This, together with the surrounding parking metered streets, has become Wollongong Central’s biggest downfall. After a $200 million investment, it is disheartening to walk into a once buzzing centre and see the occasional passer-by.

 The hype of the grand opening has been officially squashed due to the overpriced and inconvenient parking cost.  Unfortunately many retailers within the centre have seen a definite trend downwards within their businesses, despite the initial boom. 

If the parking is at least free for the first couple hours it lures people into the centre and encourages them to stay for a longer period of time. After a day out shopping it truly puts a dampener on your spirits to come to the machine and be greeted with a hefty bill.

The renovation was seen as a ‘‘great opportunity to anchor the Illawarra’’, and still has great potential to do so, but will not occur until parking becomes more reasonable.

Natasha Katsoudas, Wollongong

 Don’t know why the kerfuffle, BHP Engineering sent a team to China over 20 years ago to assist in the building of their steelworks. Come back to bite them, hasn’t it?

Peter Tornaros, Oak Flats 

In my younger days I had the honour of playing drums with a musical genius by the name of Freddy Radloff.

Fred passed away a few days ago leaving a massive hole in memory lane in the Illawarra music scene.

Fred was a true gentleman and a pleasure to play with. Fred, you will be sadly missed – RIP my friend!

Mick Chamberlain, Dapto

So the PM wants to implement a GST on all products that are bought via the internet. Well that’s one easy solution to raising revenue. But he is somehow missing his mark – he can’t tax the big boys in town, those who send billions of dollars overseas to tax havens.

 Maybe that is in the too-hard basket for him and his so called Cabinet to implement. So taking a big stick to the lowly paid, and the lower income people, is a far easier option.

They have not got the know-how, nor the brains to go after the big guns who siphon their enormous profits overseas, untaxed.

 While we who work and live here foot the bill for their incompetence. 

Lawrence Wren, Fairy Meadow

Yet another instance of a shark attack off the Australian coast. When are people going to learn we don’t belong in the ocean? We don’t have slits behind our ears and we need oxygen to breathe.

If you persist in running red lights, you will inevitably be seriously injured. Don’t complain when it happens and then argue for a shark cull. They belong there, we don’t. 

Graham Jones, Cordeaux Heights

That performance from the Dragons  in Wollongong last week took me back to the days of Steve Price as coach when ill-discipline and lack of respect for ball possession were the team’s hallmarks. On last Thursday’s effort, we don’t deserve to be  in the finals.

Dave Jennings, Towradgi