Letters to the editor: Pilot Bay plan an ill-thought-out project

Pilot Bay. Photo / File

Council's ridiculous haste to revisit the Pilot Bay cycle lane is typical of the ill-thought-out projects that have failed all over town.

Is it just that central government will pay 90 per cent of the cost? Are there no worthier projects?

Everyone else can see that in busy times the road will be gridlocked. Every car that manoeuvres to park will stop the traffic, the rubbish trucks will stop the traffic, buses will stop the traffic.

They haven't indicated how many parking spaces will be lost on the mall. Serious cyclists confidently and safely ride through the area at the speed limit of 30km/h, they can use the full width of one lane as there isn't room to pass.

The 125 spaces that may be lost on Marine Parade can not be replaced, this is in an area which is crowded through summer and much of the rest of the year.

Come on guys, abandon this plan. Put the money and effort into a cycle and pedestrian path on the dunes all the way to Pāpāmoa. Hawke's Bay, New Plymouth and Gisborne have done it. Why can't we. At the very least it would get the recreational cyclists off the road.

Dan Russell
Tauranga

Provide proof

Regarding the article, "Ceremony marks handover of site" (News, July 4), Mr Ihaka, chairman of Otamataha Trust, referring to 11 Mission St which was purchased by the City for The Elms Foundation, (but given by Mayor Powell to a Maori trust) stated, "A small place but absolutely immense in its symbolic significance to us. It is 156 years since 1864 and its confiscation". Wrong!

On October 30, 1838, 182 years ago, that land was legally sold by 17 rangatira to Rev. A. N. Brown "and to their heirs and assigns forever". One can trace that 30-acre purchase, for goods received, to the Church Missionary Society, then to Rev. Brown's family subdividing their 17 acres in 1913 into 47 lots, one of them was 11 Mission St.

Various persons owned No 11 and in 2006 the Elms Foundation paid a deposit to purchase it but could not raise the funds. The city purchased 11 Mission St for the purpose of transferring ownership to The Elms Foundation.

This whole worldwide movement to rewrite history is gaining acceptance due to the media providing a few, in my view, vocal minorities coverage, while most folks stay silent. I ask the Otamataha Trust to provide proof that 11 Mission St was confiscated.

(Abridged)
Jim Sherlock
Tauranga

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