The Bay of Plenty Times welcomes letters and comments from readers. Below you can read the letters we have published in your newspaper today.
TODAY'S LETTERS:
Motorsport club needs its space
Re: Shantytown idea for All Terrain Park.
No, this should not go ahead. The motorsport club has worked hard for years to
get where they are. How dare they just come in and think they can take over? I can't believe the council is even considering this.
Ashley Adlington, Tauranga
Leave plan alone
Re: Stop the fighting over TECT park (Editorial, August 11)
Tect Park is and was an area for noisy sports, motor racing , drag racing, gun clubs and motorcycles. This was and is the sole purpose. Not bird watching, pushbikes or tourist attractions.
We have learnt don't put a music stage near a hotel or on a sewage plant in town. There never was or is a place for a train station at a drag strip or in a mud bog. Stick to the plan. There is lots of room... not a reason to change the plan.
The Tect Park manager, Rick Balfor, seems to be doing his best to go in the opposite direction every chance he can, making it very hard for all clubs involved in getting started. Maybe it's time Tauranga City Council finds a person with a passion for a noisy sports park.
Chris Hawkes, Mount Maunganui
We do care
The comments by Angela Scott of Tauranga Age Concern that inferred that the lady's family, friends and neighbours were uncaring people is grossly unfair (News, August 4).
The lady left the house at 11.30pm, fell and was found next morning. At 11.30pm, I am sound asleep, so are the others, and certainly not peering out the windows to check on my neighbours.
I also do not invade my neighbours' privacy by peering into their house or property either, day or night. There is a balance between looking out for your neighbours and invading their privacy.
Age Concern should try and understand the people, their culture, privacy and their differences, rather than make a statement that people are not caring of others.
We all care and respect others but in different ways.Rahim BukshCherrywoodStill a treasure
I received two free tickets in a competition to see Alexa Still the flautist. What a great time I had listening to her beautiful tone and modern exploration of the sounds of the flute as "tube".
Her music was so inspiring I found myself creating all sorts of stories (from whales being hunted by fishermen to social scenarios) in my mind as she played - sometimes I wish she had continued the pieces for a longer time as the stories hadn't ended yet ... Her interaction with the audience included teaching us to beat box using the words "book" and "cook", then leaving out the vowels as she played. Very funny.
So thanks again for this opportunity to enjoy quality flute playing and supporting a New Zealand treasure.
Jose Ludlow, Judea
Do we need it?
I am becoming increasingly concerned with the continued expectancy through newspaper reports of an underpass under the Hairini roundabout to Welcome Bay.
The Hairini traffic lights from all accounts has improved markedly rush-hour travelling times. In my view, the focus of our planners should be for the underpass to continue along SH29 towards the east, as originally intended, when the time is right. It is important that commonsense prevails when public money is at stake; especially when the installation of lights has proved to be so effective.
Doug Morris, Te Puna
Alco-chronic
Peter Dunne had to impose an interim solution to the dangerous situation of poorly regulated synthetic cannabinoids but, in the eight weeks it took to come to this decision, approximately 160 people died of alcohol-related causes.
If Mr Dunne reads Ministry of Social Development data, he may be falsely reassured that drinking hasn't changed despite considerable liberation of our alcohol environment. If he reads WHO [World Health Organisation] data, and studies from Sally Caswell, a New Zealander and one of the most highly regarded alcohol researchers in the world, he would realise that the Ministry of Social Development data doesn't measure changes in heavy drinking, nor severity of consequences from that drinking.
There have been significant increases in heavy drinking since alcopops, supermarket alcohol and prolonged on-licence drinking hours have been introduced, according to Caswell and others. If Dunne truly is a "family man" he would embrace the well-known solution that would only affect the bingers of a drug that is surely worth more attention than Kronic.
Tony Farrell, Mount Maunganui
Boycott
Re Cost of milk. The simple answer to a seemingly pointless issue - that of a time-wasting and cash-consuming inquiry into the price of milk when there are many higher priority matters to be addressed - is surely this ... stop buying and drinking milk for a week.
This will have at least a couple of benefits:
It will bring home to those who are reaping large profits at the expense of the consumer (so what else is new?) just who is actually in charge of those profits and that we can boycott to the point of effectiveness, thus bringing down the price.
The incidence of children's coughs, sniffles and glue ear could be noticeably reduced.
Mike Francis-Roberson, Tauranga
Do it right
Re: Illegal DIY rife in Bay houses (News, August 13)
Is this really a surprising finding? If people did not have to jump through so many bureaucratic hoops, pedantic regulations and then pay unrealistic sums for the privilege, these sorts of things wouldn't happen. There is no sense in the council complaining at a problem they themselves have created. Council would be better at being a little more user friendly and fixing the system that created the problem.
Chudleigh Haggett, Tauranga
Text views
* Sunday cyclist group on welcome bay road with a death wish whats with riding 2 and 3 abreast ever thought of single file? Be fair and use common sense
* Illegal DIY rife - is it any wonder that this is happening when we have the greediest council in the country who charge exorbitant consent fees!!! C
* I would like 2 know wholesale of AB jersy. Prhps th retailers wer the grdy ones? LYN
* Bop wonder if brian kelly knows gold is worth 2200an ounce.
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