Letters to the editor: Traffic woes, needy families, joy of recycling

A reader suggests three lanes for traffic on 15th Ave. Photo/file

Three lane idea

Have our city fathers given any consideration to implementing a three-lane signalled configuration to ease the congestion in 15th Avenue? This system has been introduced by Auckland City on the Whangaparaoa road and appears to be working well. The two outside lanes operate as normal, but the middle lane is controlled by traffic signals to allow traffic to proceed to the city in the morning and out of the city in the afternoon, giving all the advantages of a four-lane highway in a limited space.
Martin Tyrrell
Papamoa

Suffering from traffic

What is wrong with the council? In my opinion, it is wholly responsible for the unprecedented levels of traffic in the city. It has allowed the massive increase in residential development. It has given no thought to the infrastructure required to support this increase.
Traffic jams and tailbacks are everywhere. Welcome Bay Rd is suffering from Papamoa residents using the road as a route into the city to avoid the snarl-ups caused by the Bayfair roadworks. This is increasing the problem at Hairini bridge and at the Ohauiti roundabout.
So the council, in its wisdom, has come up with yet another hare-brained scheme for 15th Ave.
When will it realise that there are too many roads which filter from two to one lane? The main arterial routes into the city all need four lanes.
The council seems intent on growth, well that includes the roading, so it should start doing the jobs that it is paid for.
Steve Porter
Welcome Bay

Need a worrying trend

If this new Government really wanted to make a difference, those in positions of power should read between the lines of stories like those seen daily in our newspapers -- "Need for help grows at Tauranga's low decile schools" (News, February 27).
There is an extremely worrying trend becoming an acceptable situation within our communities and the Government should be hearing the warning bells ringing loudly in its ears.
Needy families who cannot afford to give their children either a breakfast or lunch for school, or provide adequate clothing for their children to be able to go to school dressed appropriately for the season. One school in Tauranga has raincoats provided for all its children, among other items like snack bars and fruit, by KidsCan.
How many young children nowadays get breakfast at school and have lunch provided? What is happening in the country that this situation has been allowed to escalate in this way?
There are wonderful agencies working towards giving these needy children a better start. But are a lot of parents just accepting this charity as a given? This problem needs urgent attention by the Government to try to put a stop to a really tragic position for any country to be in.
Isabel Ashmore
Tauranga

Recycling joy

We need to take the glass recycling to the next step, so everyone young and old can benefit from the joy of recycling.
For the young: Let's put a refund deposit on all bottles. The funds from this we can give to the young so they learn to save money.
For the old: Let's recycle our current councillors that we have for suggesting such a ridiculous idea.
Alan Ryan
Welcome Bay