Letters: Bridges victim of character assassination campaign

If anything has become clear as a result of the political chaos surrounding the Jami-Lee Ross revelations, it is that Simon Bridges has become the target of a concerted character assassination campaign by his political foes.

The "knives in the back" are placed there for all to see. My family and I have been privileged to know Simon and his extended family for 40 years.

He is an honourable, articulate and dedicated man who has served his nation in an exemplary way.

Much less could be said of those who seek to disgrace him while hiding behind editorial and political opportunity.

The Knights of the National Party have fled the field, leaving Simon to defend himself.

Simon's travel expenses were amassed while he went to talk to his electorate which, as leader of a major political party, was his duty.

Would the electorate prefer that he sat in Wellington reading the same tea-leaves that the opinion pollsters regularly use?

One consolation for Simon is that he is unlikely to be challenged as leader at this stage.

His National Party colleagues can still smell the dregs of the poisoned chalice he has inherited.

Christopher Archer
Tauranga

Daft decision

New Tauranga city speed limits in force from next Monday, (News, October 24)

This must be one of the daftest decisions made by council staff in 2018 particularly when councillors didn't have the opportunity to vote.

Why is Tauranga always a follower and never a leader?

Why do they find it necessary to regulate the speed to 30km/h only within the metered area of the CBD when it is almost impossible to go any faster because of a large number of speed humps and other speed controlling obstacles?

Car owners will be the laughing stock of Tauranga when they are being overtaken by pushbike riders and Lime scooters, whose riders appear to be above the laws and oblivious to the dangers they are putting themselves in.

I will wager that there has never been a road death or injury within these boundaries caused by a driver obeying every road rule so why do we need even more restrictions?

We can't keep regulating law-abiding people to the stage that it is almost impossible to be a lawful citizen.

The council's reasoning doesn't withstand scrutiny and the cyclists and pedestrians must also be responsible people and be aware of the dangers around them.

The motorist cannot be held responsible for every situation, especially when it is completely out of their control.

Devon Campbell
Tauranga

Welcome Bay traffic woes

Once again long-suffering Welcome Bay residents are reduced to a time and gas guzzling crawl into the city in the mornings while we wait for the council to come up with a solution to their ill-conceived intersection design.

As a result of concern over the welfare of cyclists as they cross the turn-off to Welcome Bay roundabout, the council's knee-jerk reaction was to close that access to thousands of cars and the occasional cyclist, thus throwing the traffic patterns immediately back into the bad old days for an undefined period.

Why don't they reopen the access-way to cars and by simply shifting the barriers to prevent cyclists from going straight ahead it will create a safe, protected slipway for them to turn left and then proceed through the Welcome Bay roundabout via Hairini Road, or they can rejoin the underpass if they wish.

Problem solved, or at least a workable solution until a more enduring answer can be found.

Murray Mason
Welcome Bay

Reckless drivers

I recently had to travel over the Kamais to the Waikato. I have not been on the road for some time and was surprised by the amount of traffic.

It has to be said that most of the drivers were patient and tolerant.

However, there were a few who caused concern by a reckless and dangerous attitude.

Part of the problem seems to be young men and not so young men driving work utes.

They do not want to travel any faster, but they seem to have the attitude "gotta be in front" until they achieve this they will tailgate aggressively.

I had a few near-misses caused by other drivers and avoided by me braking heavily.

Roger Gibbs
Te Puke