There wasn't a car in the street, the cannas were flaunting rings of fire and the two remaining palm trees looked magnificent.

The shops had an aura, and something of an individuality about them that seeped through me.

I could see from afar Starrs had a sale on for the poster in their window was so colourful and blended with the scene in the street.

I wanted to ring a bell and have all the shop owners come out andenjoy Horton Street with me without the traffic.

In this scene surely none would be so rash as to cut down the two remaining palm trees, especially for the sake of a scraggy light-pole.

In my mind's eye as I stood in the street I saw the other palms re-planted again, and the garden plots around them, and perhaps a fountain, and people mingling happily with no motor cars - yes, not even a taxi - to molest them.

I contrasted this scene with the hazards of normal times when it comes to walking in Horton Street and the madness of holiday times made madder by that pedestrian crossing.

I could see a Horton Street mall as something of outstanding beauty, for that section of it between Clarence and William streets lends itself to being something out of the ordinary.

I could see an end to the frustrations of seeking parking space, and no more angry people. Instead, a happy throng of shoppers and sightseers who could not help but make a purchase amid such environment.

Back to the present . . . as I left Horton Street I had the conviction that there is not enough parking space there to serve all the varied business crammed into it; that it would be a better place without cars at all, and the natural conclusion to all this was that adequate car parking in the right places is the most pressing problem in this growing town."

Port Macquarie's double ski combination, Jim Pullen and Peter Hennessey finished second in the double ski event at the NSW Surf Championships conducted over the weekend.

Jim and Peter, who are current Australian champions and who came second in the same event last year, put up a great performance in the final on Sunday to go down narrowly.

They will be defending their Australian title in Perth next month.

The Port Macquarie Club performed very well to finish third in the Country Championship.

It was a proud day recently for St. Joseph's Primary School when at a special assembly Father Leo Donnelly presented badges to school captains and prefects.

At Tuesday night's council meeting, Ald Westerweller urged that the council ask the engineer to slow down on private works to enable council's own works program to go ahead. A report to council showed 29 items of private works completed.