Editorial: Ask and you may receive

Many years back, when I once asked my father advice about something I was thinking of doing, he responded with a well-worn but worthy slice of advice.

He simply said, "Well you can only ask."

Which is fine advice, for I suspect many people go through life encountering situations, obstacles or decisions which they prefer to either put up with or hope it just goes away.

Often it can be because they don't want to sound like moaners or time wasters.

Other times it could be that to try and get something put right means having to go to a daunting civil department.

Apart from hearing good advice like "well you can only ask", I have also heard gloomy reactions like, "Oh nothing'll get done" or "They've got better things to do."

Which explains why sometimes nothing gets done.

It's because people don't do, or say, anything about something that bothers them.

They prefer to "just put up with it".

So this is a "well done" note to the Napier City Council for responding to one resident's mutual philosophy of "well you can only ask".

He rang me last week and told me a call he made to the council had resulted in five men and two vehicles turning up near his house within two days.

He, and at least two other nearby residents, had effectively gone down the "just put up with it" path for a few months after roadworks had been completed on their street ... but not entirely completed.

A manhole cover had been poorly embedded, and had started to rattle and bang as traffic passed over it.

So enough was enough and he asked if anything could be done about it.

And within a couple of days he got the answer when the road crew arrived and got stuck in. Top work, from those who took the call to those who took to their shovels.

You only have to ask.