The Bay of Plenty Times welcomes letters and comments from readers. Here you can read the letters we have published in your newspaper today.
Gridlock needs sorting out
Traffic on Cameron Rd barely flows for much of the day. Saving time, fuel and environmental pollution created by this congestion
appears to not factor as a cost, or have value as a problem for the council.
I would hope that gridlock on Cameron Rd isn't the council's plan to force increased Route K use and revenue.
Councils should be exploring how unfortunately timed costly projects like Route K can be turned into a positive, by factoring integration that reduces costs and congestion in some areas and adds value in others - not advocating tried and failed methods that doom Route K to continue past and present failures.
The reasons for poor usage need to be identified and addressed. As an example, we have more than 150 staff at our factory at The Lakes and only about six use the toll road. Other possible users don't see value.
Only a bureaucracy that normally operates under a regulated cost-plus regime could conceive that a 50 per cent cost increase would be perceived as increased value and encourage usage.
Second, why do we have such an archaic collection method?
Why are we queuing to pay a toll in this day and age?
Fortunately the toll staff are professional and friendly and turn this inefficient inconvenience into a pleasure.
Richard Drummond, Managing director Kiwi Bus Builders
Bias not wanted
Mary Brooks (Letters, September 19) could have criticised Margret Mutu's obviously bigoted views on immigration and been on solid ground. Instead she chose to reveal her own tendencies by questioning Ms Mutu's ethnicity.
"Just how much Maori blood does Mutu have in her system?" Ms Brooks said.
One wonders if Ms Brooks queries the ethnicity of kilt-wearing, bagpipe-playing New Zealanders. Just how much Scottish blood do they have?
I would bet my last dollar that they - like myself - are colonial mutts.
Questioning our immigration policy is perfectly legitimate, but singling out specific immigrant groups is clearly racist, and that is where Margret Mutu went wrong.
CC McDowall, Rotorua
Still time left
We are disappointed at the apparent lack of publicity given to marketing Tauranga during the Rugby World Cup.
We noted in a supplement to the Herald on Sunday that eight North Island centres were mentioned in the context of "where to go and what to do when the rugby's not on" - Tauranga and Mount Maunganui were not mentioned.
We all know that we have some wonderful attractions and great restaurants and cafes, yet the city is missing out on attracting tourists due to a lack of visible marketing - you can't sell a secret. Tauranga is ideally positioned for visitors en route to Rotorua, Hamilton and Auckland between games.
If visitors don't know what we have to offer, they won't visit.
Those who purport to market Tauranga should lift their gaze from their navels and market the city. It's not too late to leverage off the RWC.Steve and
Wendy Walker, Matua
Public will pay
In respect to the election signs proposal, rather intriguingly Mayor Stuart Crosby, the person who initially proposed that election signs should be banned - so that we were in line with Rotorua and Hamilton - following a consultative process subsequently voted to retain the existing policy.
In every instance when a proposition is submitted to the community for consultation there is a significant financial cost in effecting the process and this cost is met by ratepayers.
And the outcome of this process was that election signs can still pollute our environment, every three years, but for a reduced period of four weeks rather than six weeks.
Naturally I accept the outcome as this is the democratic process, but I do believe that a better result would have been to have adopted the reduced period along with an application fee of, say, $100 for each person wanting to erect signs, so that rather than the ratepayers meeting the cost of compliance and monitoring of the policy (which is complaints driven) that the users would pay.
Sadly, this is another example of passing the cost of a policy on to another party and this always seems to be our long-suffering ratepayers.
Mike Baker, Bethlehem
Texts
* So Grey Power wants to introduce MEANS TESTING for National Superannuation and this makes my decision as to whether i would ever join the organisation.. NEVER
* max mason claims spendng is dwn in tga bcos rugby is on evry1s mynd. Mor likely bcos thez no fan base thea
* Why put a bunch of visionless councillors in charge of route K as they have no idea other than believing that one day Transit NZ will take over all the debt.
* Big screen and a FAN ZONE.. Great eh but too little and far to late from a Council and councillors that increasingly display a lack of any vision whatsoever.
* Good on ya Mayor Crosby - big screen will be awesome. Thanks for listening to the people.
* Pt effort in2 ur kids u bldy hopeles parents an u wil hav amazin kids.I hav pt in efort for years an nw hav amazin teengas .
* mary brooks cn b 4givn 4 hr opinion. she was most likely educ8d in the generatn tht punishd maori children 4 speakn their own languge & tort biasd nz history. im a 44yr old & was tort at primry hw bad maori wer 4 fytng in the land wars. i was very ashamd. thn grew up, embracd & educ8d myslf.
Website
Mount Hot Pools reopen after 18 weeks
* Yes! My old work mates have been texting me about it. Ahhh ... missing the Mount. Such a nice memory, my time there. I could quite possible be up there for a visit the first weekend of October.
* I can't wait to go! I really miss that place and I am happy that it is up and running again.
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