Letters to the editor: Council needs to sort out Omanawa Falls

Kaitiaki from Ngati Hangarau hapu are still turning away dozens of people visiting Omanawa Falls. Photo / File

We are at a loss to understand why it has taken months and months to sort out Omanawa Falls and access to it.

Consultation has been ongoing and Tauranga City Council has had time to get viewing platforms up and working.

They have the land for the car parking and toilets don't take years to build.

There is no good reason why the consultation process, which is chewing up money, should be taking so long.

I hope the commissioners will speed it up.

Google still hasn't corrected its maps to show the correct access point.

One neighbour who got sick of having visitors to their property looking for access put up a sign saying Google has got it wrong.

That had cars stopping so people could have their photos taken by the sign, so they took it down.

Several people have tried to get action from Google without success, so we are lucky with Covid that it will have stopped overseas young people from flocking there.

We are sick of waiting for decisions from the council.

Margaret Murray-Benge
Bethlehem

Covid-19 returnees

I feel sorry for the people in Auckland that their businesses are being ruined because the Government hasn't the guts to close the borders.

The people coming back should stay where they were because if it wasn't for Covid-19, they would not be coming back and our welfare system wouldn't be stretched.

They all had the choice to come back earlier, but selfishly they have chosen to come back now.

Whatever the cost for these people up to date should not be subsidised, and full costs are payable by them.

Our rights outweigh theirs.

Graham Holloway
Gate Pa

TECT reforms get tick

We have been customers of Tauranga Electric Power Board and of Trustpower for more than 50 years.

The TECT trustees are to be congratulated for their reform proposal.

It strikes a fair balance between the interests of about 50,000 existing beneficiaries, the interests of the wider Western Bay of Plenty community, and the unborn beneficiaries of the future.

When the electricity board was sold to Trustpower, TECT was set up as a community trust for the long-term benefit of Tauranga and Western Bay citizens.

At present, the existing Trustpower consumers represent only 59 per cent of the current community.

Any suggestion to wind up the trust early and pay a large capital windfall to them would be at the expense of the other 41 per cent of our community and of future generations.

This would be wrong and against the trust's core purpose.

The reform proposed would protect our TECT rebate payment for 30 years and, at the same time, establish a huge community trust which would benefit both present and future generations of the Western Bay of Plenty.

This would be fair.

The TECT trustees are doing the job they were set up to do.

Basil and Ann Graeme
Tauranga

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