The Bay of Plenty Times welcomes letters and comments from readers. Below you can read the letters we have published in your newspaper today.
TODAY'S LETTERS:
Forget $7m pools work
I hope the new council will not continue with the proposed $7 million alteration to the Mount Hotpools.
At present it is the only Tauranga swimming pool making a profit. With the acknowledged shortage of funds and the huge overdraft owed by the council, it surprises me that they want to add another white elephant for the taxpayer to fund.
Why is it necessary to add a restaurant and conference room to the pool complex?
Numerous restaurants and hotels are only 100m or so away from the pool.
Are all the conference facilities and halls in Tauranga fully booked on any one year?
It will be a sad day for the elderly and locals who cannot afford an increased in charges to enjoy the use of the pool and its present facilities.
This catering for tourists and appearances' sake will definitely disadvantage family groups, the elderly and physically handicapped people who use the pool for exercise.
For those whose pre-election speeches promised financial restraint, here's your chance to save $7 million and honour your election pledges.
F J WILLIAMS Arataki
Surf's up? Yeah right
I would like to return my Mount Reef T-shirt and get a refund (in a perfect world).
I feel that "how many years?" is too long to wait for a reef that I thought I was contributing to.
Who is accountable for the wasted cash that so many have given eagerly for increased surf days and business at the Mount?
I understand that you are probably as disappointed as the rest of the Mount but who is going to stand up and say "we messed up" or "it's never going to work like we said"?
If you think that a poorly updated website and a few photos of the only ever freak good days and some warm fuzzy comments from the lucky few who have ever seen it produce a wave are going to keep everyone happy, you are deluded.
Local businesses and surfers have paid for something they are never going to get and someone needs to front up and say so. It's time that the contractors, local council or whomever it may fall on, to "man up" and tell us what is going on.
I understand the money gone in has got someone a few good surf days but not here and not for the people or the community that had been scammed into funding it.
MATTHEW NECKLEN Mount Maunganui
Keep left or pay penalty
Travelling frequently between Tauranga and Auckland, it seems to me that failing to keep left may be as big a contributor to the road toll as that perennial favourite, "speed".
I always wonder why the words "excessive" or "inappropriate speed" are never used. Surely that would more correctly define the problem. Even a child will understand that 99.9 per cent of road accidents involve speed. But I digress, back to keeping left.
It seems from Ministry of Transport figures (2008) that 91 lives were lost from crashes where vehicles failed to keep left (ie, not overtaking) . So why don't Kiwi drivers move to the left lane when it is clear and they are "clogging up" the middle or right-hand lane or worse?
Maybe we should join the rest of the world and penalise these drivers for failing to keep left?
We could do it at the same time as we "regularise" the turning-right rule.
ROY EDWARDS Tauranga
Future uncertain
Re: Hairini Link road.
We are most concerned with the Turret Rd section of the proposal project. We purchased our property on Turret Rd well over 30 years ago. At that time we had unencumbered views of the inner harbour, looking towards Maungatapu across the estuary and designed our property to encompass these magnificent views.
Over the years the council allowed pohutukawa weeds to thrive around the foreshore, to the extent we now can barely see through the scrubby weeds. Some of these weeds have grown to trees and - to our astonishment - the transport agency, supported by the Government, are to spend millions of dollars building around around them. Yes, I write the truth, a road built around some trees - it defies belief.
The original plan was to build the Turret Rd section exactly where the trees stand - this was more than 20 years ago. Have the weeds grown too big?
We are now told plan A would involve destroying our house and plan B, which we read in the Bay of Plenty Times (September 22), involves a road at the rear of our property - this area we have kept weed-free over the years, perhaps a mistake.
My wife and I are now elderly and this intrusion into our life is overwhelming, We are struggling with uncertainty, unsure of our future.
JOHN HAIGH Tauranga
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