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:
Partnership produces distinctive playground
Tauranga City Council has added $32.5 million to its debt.
On behalf of the Board of Trustees of Kaka Street Special School, students, families and staff, we would like to thank the Tauranga City Council for the wonderful partnership that has developed in the past three years in the development of a full access playground in the Kaka/Kea Street reserve.
This fenced playground is unique. It provides accessible play equipment for children who have a disability but also provides challenges for more able children.
Council sought good quality equipment that would stand the test of time, deciding on four specialised pieces of equipment including a wheelchair roundabout, a first for New Zealand, climbing dome, three upright swings and a basket swing.
The design includes a wheelchair and bicycle path with an all-weather, easy access, safe surface.
Playgrounds are core business for councils. But in this case, the council has respected the needs of people with a disability and their additional safety concerns. They have gone way further than we expected.
Thank you to TECT, City Partners and PlaceMakers who have also supported this project.
Thank you Tauranga City Council for your respect and support.
This playground will make a difference in the lives of families in the Tauranga area.
Jo Crean, Associate Principal, Kaka Street Special School
Ridiculous rate
In the court news this week a 35-year-old woman who was convicted of benefit fraud of $52,205 is paying this back at the rate of $15 per week.
My back of an envelope calculation means that she will be 105 by the time reparation has been made not taking into account depreciation, inflation and the cost of processing the weekly repayments if indeed they continue to be made.
Surely this is a ridiculous situation.
Roly Hammond, Matua
Debt concern
So the councillors are surprised that they have had to add $32.5million to the already huge council debt of $368 million (News, August 17).
As reported, the first transfer of the debt to the ratepayers will add in excess of 1 per cent to rates and when fully transferred, in excess of a 3 per cent rate rise along of course with repayment costs of the loan.
The problem that we seem to have is that we have councillors that seem to believe that if they ignore the obvious for long enough that it will actually go away, as this was an issue that was discussed early in the term that I was elected to council, in 2007.
At that time a large number of councillors seemed to believe that the development community was severely disadvantaging the ratepayers and by majority they refused to consider any changes to the policy in order to encourage growth in areas already with infrastructure in place, which ultimately forced developers further afield where basic infrastructure did not exist.
Sadly, the councillors who have served terms in excess of 10 years are, in my view, more responsible for this unsatisfactory state of affairs, than some of the newer councillors, but then when you have a council with little business experience what else can we expect?
Mike Baker, Bethlehem
Text Views
* For shame maori fishing quota owners. U shd employ maori unemployed not foreigners.
* Obstain frm SEX Rugby refs will have 2 change their call when putin down scrums frm Crouch Touch Pause Engage eh!
* No Sex Plea Some farm animals ar by necessity castrated by a rubber ring Would a man wearing 1 on a finger b comfortable with this as sugested by Telecom?
* 4 world cup rugby referees no smiles or smirks when putting down a scrum and using established words CROUCH TOUCH PAUSE ENGAGE you will be seen
What people are saying on Facebook
* Most cities/towns have the films rotated. Tga/Mt have rec'd $200,000-00 in revenue so whats the problem. Maunganui Rd is a long Rd so if 1 Camera slows the traffic down Film or no film it is good.
* I think this is great! Hopefully there will be more areas for mothers to breastfeed. Kudos Grindz Cafe!
* Telecom has achieved exactly what they intended - more people talking about the Rugby World Cup. Whether the campaign is a good idea or not is irrelevant.
* Telecom have pulled what appears to be a huge marketing stunt that has achieved the results they always wanted! It's been on the front page of national newspapers, the main topic of twitter and facebook and on the national news channels. You can't get better publicity than that!
* Thank goodness they've just cancelled it. Wouldn't a better campaign be something like "Welcome the World"? Ask Kiwis to sign up to host a visiting family/couple/group to a BBQ at their place to watch a game live? I doubt many coming from overseas have tickets to every game, so there would be plenty of opportunity to meet the locals while here and share a passion for rugby. We'd love to host someone from Wales.
* Stupid. Can't really see the point. Think they thought they were being funny but it just came across as dumb.
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