Letters: Here's hoping Powell can inspire the council

New Tauranga mayor Tenby Powell and his wife, business leader Sharon Hunter, at Kulim Park. Photo / File

Congratulations to Tenby Powell on winning the mayoralty.

I hope he can inspire the council to look past those "lower the rates" whiners and start executing the vision for our great city.

For most of the 15 years I've lived here, Tauranga has been drifting because the council has been continually dragged backwards by small-vision folk who cannot or will not see past their own narrow short-term interests.

We need a truly inspirational leader to get us out of this hole and, based on his record, Tenby may be the one.

But let us not forget to thank Greg Brownless for what he brought to the mayoralty last term.

We must admire his honesty, hard work, insistence on fairness and correct protocol, and preparedness to take it on the chin as the results of the outrageous decisions and egregious incompetence of former councils were progressively exposed.

For much of the time he was in a no-win position but he accepted it with good grace as he tried to resolve the many serious issues and move forward.

Go well Greg, and maybe we'll see you again in a future role.

John Reid
Omanawa

Stop pampering the criminals

Five hundred dangerous criminals have breached their conditions subject to orders enabling authorities to strictly monitor them in the past six years (News, October 14).

The authorities are meant to supervise them closely. This is a joke. Why is it that this year alone 275 orders are in place and 89 offenders have breached their conditions?

Why is this happening? To begin with, these 500 dangerous criminals should never be allowed out of jail. People within the Justice Department should be held accountable for any criminal's breach of conditions.

Successive governments have had their head in the sand when it comes to the safety of law-abiding citizens. Stop pampering the criminals and instead pay respect to the victims.

Rosemary Cullen
Bayfair