Letters to the editor: Three waters ads 'misleading and insulting'

The Government proposes to create four regional entities to manage water, stormwater, wastewater. Photo / Stephen Parker

We all benefit from having clean drinking water, control of stormwater, and safe and efficient removal of sewage. The infrastructure to provide this has been paid for by ratepayers over generations.

We all benefit, but ratepayers are the ones who pay.

In the past, central government has offered grants to help local government fund this, as it did with a multimillion-dollar grant when Western Bay improved the sewage infrastructure in Maketu.

So why is this Government not helping in the same way?

It has wasted so much money on what, in my view, are misleading and insulting ads, created working parties, and endless involvement with bureaucrats, and proposed four huge bumbling entities which will be so remote that no single council will have any influence at all.

The four entities will be undemocratic.

We should all oppose this strongly.

Margaret Murray-Benge
Bethlehem

Parking pays

Tauranga City Council is finally talking about restarting parking fees in the city (News, March 9).

It doesn't cost much to park in the centre of town. If you don't believe that, find a car park in Auckland.

It's useful revenue for the city.

The metering machines are quite clever so it shouldn't be too difficult to set them to give the first 40 minutes free. After that, the remainder (80 minutes or less) would be paid for by the motorist.

Obviously, the vehicle details will have to be entered and the council will have to police parking.

It would probably be fair to offer tradies cheap spaces in the parking buildings to get their vehicles off the streets.

Come on, council, don't sell the parking buildings, they are also good earners and a valuable asset.

Dan Russell
Tauranga

Rob Rattenbury's column on our egalitarian society set me thinking about success and what it means to each of us.

In all probability there are many differing views, but most would agree that personal security in the form of finances would be at the top of most lists.

A decent home, education, secure employment and a reliable car would fill most middle-class bills.

But what if you're born into a different scene, say, a state-supported environment, where ambition could be quenched by the daily grind of just trying to make ends meet?

There's a word that we all need in order to achieve, whatever our destiny: Hope.

Hope does not necessarily lift us out of those precarious physical situations, and doesn't ensure financial security or freedom from the consequences of our actions. But hope sees an end-goal that life will be better.

It comes from the knowledge that God is in control and He knows what's best for all that are His.

John Williams
Ngongotāhā

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