We have seen people unloading luggage out of buses on to the busy road, emergency vehicles struggling to get through heavy traffic, and the Grey St-Childers Rd roundabout come to a complete standstill due to the increased number of users.
Just because our city receives funding doesn’t mean we have to spend it.
Delay the funds, find out what people really want and implement what is going to benefit everyone the best.
Teresa Hopper
Makaraka has other priorities
As a resident of Makaraka since 1981, I respond to Mr J. Marshall regarding his promotion of a footpath/cycleway along the disused rail line out to Makaraka.
Aside from land ownership and other issues, there is no demand or need for a footpath/cycleway to Makaraka. I do not believe householders along the railway line would appreciate opening up access to the back of their properties. It would be an expensive exercise, and I am sure residents would prefer money to be spent on addressing Makaraka’s drainage issues, among other more practical things. Should I mention public toilets?
Over the years I have made repeated calls on the council to make Makaraka a more attractive Gateway to Gisborne, but council has turned a deaf ear.
The open drains are useless and rubbish traps; the intersection has been a problem for years; and some tidy-up, beautification wouldn’t go astray.
Gisborne needs any spare money to be spent on practical fix-it work - not idealistic, non-priority projects.
Roger Handford
Fix roads first
Re: Potholed road “another accident waiting to happen”, May 23 story.
This stretch of road has been terrible for years. After the article in the paper about this road after the RnV accident, the council said they “needed people to let them know about bad roads so they could fix them”. Whatever, still not fixed.
Imagine how many pot holes could be fixed with all the time and money being spent on the Grey St debacle.
Even if it was one big one, it would be money better spent!
I drove up Waingake Road the other day, too - it is so unbelievably bad and dangerous. GDC need to get their priorities straight.
Tanya Hawthorne
Being isolated
Re: Cyclone-stricken rural families “falling between policy cracks”, May 9 story.
Just shocking. I don’t think the region is fully aware there are residents in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay still having ongoing problems post-Cyclone Gabrielle.
I’d like to see local councils and government having to cope with being isolated - and I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t want to wait nearly five years to get anything started.
Sally Cale
We all must reduce emissions
Several disturbing items in the news on Wednesday.
1. A Singapore Airlines flight with 23 Kiwi passengers hit severe turbulence over the Indian Ocean, resulting in one dead British passenger and 71 others injured. Research suggests severe turbulence in jet streams could double or even triple in coming decades if the climate continues to change as expected.
2. Gisborne drenched, more rain on the way and “the heaviness of it is of some concern,” says our provincial Federated Farmers president.
3. A report informed us that Tiniroto Rd is to be reopened on a temporary basis at the Hangaroa Bluffs.
4. In his letter to the editor, Bruce Holm reminded us of the “need to reduce farm emissions”.
These are all serious climate change matters.
Because we rely on fossil fuels, New Zealand is far more isolated than land-linked countries.
Greenhouse gases are destroying our chance of a sustainable future – it is essential that we reduce all our emissions and move to a fossil-free world.
However, when zero carbon hits home in 2050, I doubt the highly promised alternatives will be there in sufficient quantities to make up for the shortfall.
The daily atmospheric CO2 reading available from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii on May 21 is 428ppm.
This is a reminder that our world is pushing the planet’s thermostat beyond safe levels of 350ppm CO2 in the atmosphere, and that more people are needed to combine our ingenuity and resources to keep the present overshoot brief.
When the trend for atmospheric CO2 levels falls, we can expect global average temperature to follow.
For those who care about the sustainability of the planet and who want it to remain a place where people can flourish, measured CO2 levels in the atmosphere serve as the single best, real-time signal of whether the world as a whole is on track to a safe future – or needs to do more to get on track.
I agree with Bruce Holm’s “need to reduce farm emissions”, but it is equally important for the rest of us to reduce our CO2 emissions as well.
All of us are making climate change worse.
Bob Hughes
Finger pointing
How many times might one read or hear the phrase “we must respect and support all people”, and then in the next instance read a derogatory comment about a particular individual or people/group.
We live in a world that is very good at commenting and exposing injustice, bigotry, sexism, prejudice and the like, but then in the same breath speaks up and out in a way that reflects those very same elements!!
Why is that so? Am I alone in seeing or thinking this? Is there a remedy? Or is humanity guilty of forever finger-pointing without realising their own guilt?
I look forward to and hope I might hear what others have to say on this particular matter.
Russell Tolley
