Letters: Safety botch-up and ward system

Someone is going to die because Tauranga City Council is hopeless at fixing things.

I raise this because on September 17 we experienced a graphic display of the results of the Cameron Rd-Chadwick Rd safety botch-up.

While stuck in the stationary traffic, leading south to the Chadwick Rd roundabout, we were stormed by an ambulance, lights flashing, sirens wailing, presumably on a life-or-death mercy mission.

We, jammed between a concrete barrier and a cycle safety track, had no legal place in which to get out of the way.

Do we swerve into the safe cycle lane to let the ambulance through and risk hitting a cyclist?

It is not if but when someone is going to die because the ambulance was stopped or a cyclist was hit.

Tauranga city councillors deserve to be replaced at the upcoming elections.

(Abridged)

Ken Evans
Tauranga

Ward system

Tauranga covers about 120 sq km and has a population of about 140,000.

We have 10 councillors with two each being elected in three wards and four at large.

I will not be supporting or voting for any people standing in this year's local body election who support the expansion of the ward system or the introduction of community boards, which will just further add to the cost and bureaucratic nightmare that we are facing.

We can only vote for six of the 10 councillors that will represent us for the next three years - that is the four at-large candidates and the two in the ward where you live.

In other words, we can only vote for 60 per cent of the councillors who are voted in to represent us.

I strongly believe if the most qualified and best candidates are standing in say Mount Maunganui, then I should be able to vote for them but I cannot as my ward is Bethlehem.

It also seems to be forgotten that in the event a candidate is elected, they pledge to support the best interests of the entire city and not just the interests of the ward they have been elected to.

(Abridged)

Mike Baker
Bethlehem
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