Letters: Harbourside walkway should be a priority

The harbourside walkway development should be a priority, writes Pauline Bryne. Image/file

Harbourside walkway should be a priority

Unlike some recent correspondents, I think that the harbourside walkway development should be a priority for Tauranga city and Western Bay councils.

It is desirable, not just for the considerable recreational enjoyment of the public, but it is a necessary investment by authorities to protect houses above the steep banks of our eroding peninsulas.

These properties are facing an accelerating risk from rising sea levels and more intense storms. Protecting the foot of these banks can only be done by natural mangrove expansion or, where the sites are too exposed for mangroves, then ratepayers should support protection using hard structures.

Walkways wide enough to accommodate pedestrians and bicycles can provide a better-looking and properly engineered structure. These structures can also contribute positively to our traffic congestion problems. Preventing major slipping and preventing the personal disasters that follow major slipping is a worthwhile investment.

The proposed walkway structure from Memorial Park to town would be a good start to a more sustainable future for our communities.

Basil Graeme
Tauranga

Towns also to blame for dirty rivers

I wonder if Rachael Stewart (Opinion, June 14) could write an article about the condition of streams and rivers after they have passed a town or city instead of focusing on dairy farmers.

She may find that they are a bigger part of the problem.

Lois Palmer
Welcome Bay

Tsunami sirens needed

I was pleased to read your article regarding council's receipt of the Director's Award for Innovation at the Civil Defence Emergency Management Awards (News, June 9).

My query is, when will the council install a warning system that will alert the residents of a tsunami and to commence evacuation?

At present we have been advised that the only point of transmitting such a warning is through a mobile phone.

I do not own a mobile phone, and people with hearing issues, would they have the ability to hear a warning from their mobile phone?

A majority of people in my age group may have a mobile phone but would have them turned off once going to bed.

I always believed that there were sirens on the lamp posts along the beach front, among others on Ocean Beach Rd?

I hasten to add, that in Camp Bun, an industrial complex in Panmure, Auckland, a siren was activated every weekday morning at 8am and it could be heard all over the eastern suburb.

Can council not adopt the same system?

Pauline Byrne
Mt Maunganui