Yass Valley Developments have done their best to please everyone at great expense by bringing in the ground penetrating radar. It found no evidence of more grave sites. Instead of wasting rate payers’ money on legal fees for something that should have been approved in the first place, use that money to help develop the town. This development and future developments can only be an asset to the town. Give them a break and let them get on with the job.

Joyce Bush

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Dear Editor,

I wonder what Thomas Laidlaw would have to say about the Yass Historical Society if he were here today. As stated in your article "Grave concerns bulldozed" August 27, Thomas Laidlaw was a local businessman and MP. I'm sure he would be all for growth and development of our town. We need our town to grow and prosper and to do this we need businesses with a vision to the future, not to be held back by the past.

It makes me wonder why all the interest in Laidlaw's grave now, as it has been there a very long time and no attempt has been made to maintain the site. Now that someone has actually donated land around the gravesite so the grave will not be disturbed in any way suddenly there is concern by the Yass Historical Society. Mrs Carlos states that it is also the site of one of the oldest Catholic cemeteries in country NSW; where are the documents to prove this?

If truth be told the area was not a cemetery, only a family gravesite. Surely if it had been a cemetery the expensive procedure of using heat seeking equipment would have shown as much.

It also leads to the question of where was the Historical Society when the graves were desecrated in the paddock belonging to the Old Linton War Veterans Home, which was also donated to the town. The now Linton Units are built right on top of that site (corner of Castor and Glebe Street). Yes, that was also a family burial sight and yes, I walked past them every day on my way to school and so did many other residents of the town. I understand there is now a plaque there somewhere: too little too late.

The St Clements’ cemetery around the church had many more historical graves than what is left there now. What happened to all the headstones and fencing that went around those graves?

I believe in preserving history for our children but I also believe our children have the right to choose a future starting in their home town if they wish; they we can't do this without growth.

This whole issue from the beginning reads like a vendetta against one company and its spokesman Mr Brendan Price. Not a good advertisement for future businesses to come into our town.

SJ Mather