The Bay of Plenty Times welcomes letters and comments from readers. Below you can read the letters we have published in your newspaper this weekend.
THIS WEEKEND'S LETTERS
Distance travelled may embody fuel's true cost
We are continually pressured to accept increasing costs as a result of skyrocketing fuel prices. However, not once do the economists, CEOs
and corporates consider that distance travelled may be the true cost they burden us with.
We are a country of such diverse and widespread land-use capabilities and yet they still insist on transporting goods and produce up and down the highways, quite often passing similar or the same freight travelling to the opposite destination.
Milk is the classic, being produced in our own hinterland very successfully, but somehow we get lumbered with freight cost increases for the journey up country to the bottling factory and then back down to our local store.
As supermarket giant Foodstuffs managing director Steve Anderson was quoted: "We would have to make our customers pay more to cover increased fuel prices and other costs". How ironic. The other main cost increase is the Emissions Trading Scheme levy.
We are being bludgeoned with both ends of the stick; the growers are getting hit hard, too.
If this is globalisation, with synergies in effect from mergers and takeovers, then it won't be long before we're all broke.
(Abridged)
PETER LOWES, Tauranga
Tsunami sirens
Re: New push for tsunami sirens (News, March 16).
The lack of a cohesive Bay of Plenty-wide emergency warning system exposes a serious and potentially dangerous lack of local leadership. Our joint councils, committees and civil defence are still discussing what and how, six years since the Boxing Day tsunami. If an earthquake or tsunami, or both, hits our shores while they continue debating, let's hope our decision-makers are ready to face the possibility of a commission of inquiry into the delay and the likelihood of a compensation claim for loss of life.
Our Government has ordered a commission of inquiry into the collapse of at least two Christchurch buildings resulting in loss of life, and suggests charges may follow; the governments of China and the Philippines are asking for compensation for the loss of their citizens in the Christchurch earthquake. These actions should focus the minds of our councillors.
A mix of publicly funded measures is required to ensure warnings reach as many people as possible. To imagine that all households will purchase their own non-rate-funded remote controlled household alarms is far-fetched, on a par with thinking that all households have functioning smoke alarms.
No more "expert reports" - just evaluate the information gathered over the last six years and get on with it please.
JENNY HEDGE, Pukehina Beach
Preparedness
I read Richard Moore's column (Straight Talk, March 15) and I have to agree. Papamoa is doomed if anything like Japan's disaster hits us, and I am angry.
I too have spent a great deal of time planning for my family's survival, believing it is our individual responsibility. However, we as individuals can only do so much. If we have our survival kits and evacuation plan then we have done our bit. But what about being notified of impending disaster and having the means to escape?
We are unable to hear any siren. Our notification has always been through friends or family. We are organised and ready to go, but to where? It is 10km to Papamoa Hills from our house and takes nine minutes to drive there on an ordinary day. How long would it take if every other person was trying to leave at the same time? There is one road out of Papamoa East and the first 1.5km is along the beachfront parallel to the sea, not away from it.
Stop procrastinating. Build some roads or at least bulldoze some tsunami evacuation tracks inland and put up sirens.
TESS HALSE, Papamoa
Retail potential
Re: Mega-mall in Tauriko tipped to fill gap (Bay of Plenty Times Weekend, March 12).
Retail is abysmal here in Tauranga, every way you look at it. The brands aren't here because the average level of income in this town is far too low, and it is a provincial town where more people buy their clothes at Farmlands than in a shopping mall.
Realistically, most people in this town can only aspire to what's already available. Perhaps Phil Rudd and a handful of others can go over to the bigger shops in Hamilton or up to Auckland or off to Aussie - but the rest make do with Glassons and Hallensteins.
The other big problem is that there just aren't the skilled retail staff available in Tauranga to staff the stores that seem to keep on coming, then going, when they realise the market is far too shallow for them to survive.
When the Bank of Scotland pulls as many dollars in mortgage backing as they have done with recent receiverships you know its a fairly awful statement on how Tauranga stacks up in the eyes of objective businessmen as opposed to those who build and hope.
STEVE CALLAGHER, Greerton
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