Letters to the editor: Mandatory rubbish collection disappointing

Some people are not keen on mandatory council rubbish collection, says a reader. Photo / File

It is very disappointing to have Tauranga City Council blithely enforce a mandatory rubbish collection system on all ratepayers.

In my household, we have for the past 16 years recycled our rubbish at a city council recycling depot.

Items not recyclable have been disposed of via a council rubbish bag collection or taken again to a council rubbish collection depot all for less than $100 per annum.

Now I, as an octogenarian, will have to drag four unwanted bins up our nearly 100m steep driveway to the roadway for emptying for a total addition to our rates bill of up to nearly $300 a year.

Most of us older people do not want this system of rubbish collection pushed on to us and we should be given leave to refuse it.

To add insult to injury the present rubbish collecting companies have been completely bypassed with the contract for this new service being given to an overseas-owned company.

Hardly cricket?

James Newman
Mount Maunganui

Lifestyle blocks

Regarding the traffic chaos around all points of entry to Tauranga City – if nothing is done Tauranga roads will be totally choked within five years.

One of the main causes of the problem is the proliferation of lifestyle blocks, subdivisions having been permitted in all surrounding areas – Welcome Bay, Ohauiti, Oropi, Pyes Pa, Te Puna, Bethlehem, Ōmokoroa, Whakamārama, Pahoia, Lower Kaimai, Te Puke to name some.

People buy bare land, mortgage to build a house and develop the block (almost none of which provide sufficient income even to pay the rates) and then have to go to work in town to support themselves economically.

So one, two or three cars are leaving each property on a daily basis to go to work, often with only one occupant.

Where is the park and ride option? Leave the car outside of the city, and catch a bus or train to work? Or bike if that is a suitable option?

There does not seem to be a plan to improve the flow of traffic and avoid the huge waste of time and excess omissions occasioned by having to crawl nose to tail at almost all times of the day to get to and from the city.

Vic Brazier
Tauranga

Cannabis referendum

Mothers, you will easily recall the birth of your baby, the unforgettable sounds and happy possibilities as you pondered the child's future.

Could your child be a doctor, a scientist, a music teacher, farmer, builder...?

Mothers are wonderful people, charting a safe course to adulthood with loving care.

I can't say the same of the Labour-Greens coalition.

Their bill promoting the legalisation of cannabis offers nothing but legalisation.

Nothing more, or less. If "Yes" votes reach more than 50 per cent, the years ahead for your child are bleak.

The ingredients for a drug-induced future are provided to your child by a licensed outlet, offering up to 14g of dry leaf cannabis per day, up to two growing plants for an individual, or four plants per household, and a promise of licensed premises.

The ingredients are taxed to support building a new mental health agency, whose work is to repair the damage done to your child as a consequence of introducing the bill.

Figure that one out.

Mothers, grandmothers, fathers, and grandfathers - show your loving care for your child or grandchild's future.

Stand strong and say "No" to recreational cannabis.

Russell McKenzie
Pāpāmoa

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