A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
Opinion
Guess there just had to be another name-calling critic of rail supporters (March 6 letter). Paul Gretton sees the world through dollar-tinted glasses by making “business acumen” the one criterion for evaluating infrastructure needs. Obviously, the sort of business acumen which externalises social and environmental costs, ie let the rate
and tax payer fund any fallout.
Recently there were television clips of a massive fire in Amberley, Canterbury. Acrid black smoke belched from burning tyres which had been dumped on good agricultural land. There are limits to recycling tyres, yet the likes of Mr Grettton would rather see more trucks than rail tracks carrying our goods.
A few days ago I tried to count the tyres on one logging truck with two trailers. I lost count at 30.
As for the notion that repairing the Gisborne-Wairoa section of the rail track is unaffordable, what rot! The year of the washout KiwiRail budgeted $13 million for debt-servicing — when half of that amount could have funded the fix. Shocking to read in their last annual report that over $11m net also disappeared to overseas lenders as interest.
Perhaps Paul Gretton can justify such wasteful spending — or does “business acumen” avoid such considerations?
