Letters to the editor: Free bus travel for Tauranga City Council staff divides opinions

More than 500 staff have taken up Tauranga City Council's offer of free bus travel. Photo / NZME

I am someone who is usually critical of council spending, but congratulations to Tauranga City Council for putting its (and our) money where its mouth is (News, September 21).

This is a great challenge to other businesses and the more people who use buses the more the service will change to mirror that usage and the easier it will be for people who cannot or make excuses that they cannot use the bus.

I appreciate we are all trying to cut costs but this would be one of the few staff benefits council employees get when compared to us in the private sector.

Great leadership from the team.

Andrew Sommerville

Bethlehem

Kick in the guts

Tauranga City Council’s decision to grant free public transport to more than 500 council staff (News, September 21) is, in my view, just another kick in the guts for long-suffering ratepayers.

I accept that the stated cost of about $100,000 a year is not necessarily a huge sum but it’s just yet another imposition on ratepayers on top of rate increases well ahead of the inflation rate.

When the cumulative effect of $100,000 there and $100,000 somewhere else is taken into account, it definitely starts to add up and even this $100,000 equates to roughly $2 a year per Tauranga rateable property.

In my view, this is just yet another cost imposed upon us without question.

Mike Baker

Bethlehem

Signs are distracting

Which is worse?

On Cameron Road, in Tauranga, between Barkes Corner and the entrance to Tauranga Racecourse, there are 28 election signs all vying for your attention.

Wedged between those signs is a road safety sign that reads: “Let driving distract you from your phone”.

It leads to the question, which is worse?

Mark Bougen

Welcome Bay

Profit before welfare

Is it ethically acceptable to own an empty house? It’s just business, isn’t it? Like investing in gold.

But does gold deprive a family of a roof over their heads?

We don’t have a housing shortage in NZ - what we do have is empty holiday homes, investment properties, and holiday rentals.

The bigger picture is a grim indicator of human nature. How as a species some of us crave more than our fair share of assets and wealth.

The very trait that has made us the most successful species on earth is the thing that is killing us.

Global warming is the result of individuals and businesses which have put profit before the welfare of humanity.

Lesley Haddon

Rotorua

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