The project has a high strategic fit, medium effectiveness but a low benefit/cost ratio. It was indicated at the meeting that strong community support may see the ranking of a project increased.
If the community feels strongly that the two-laning of Kaeo bridge is important, that we don't want to face future delays and the additional annoyance of temporary traffic lights at Christmas time, that a one-lane bridge is not appropriate to cope with the influx of vehicles to the Doubtless Bay area (a destination in itself) in the holiday season, that there is potential economic loss to industry, including dairy and marine, as a result of trucks having to wait at a one-lane bridge, that there should be unimpeded access for emergency and essential service vehicles moving to and from Doubtless Bay, Taupo Bay and Totara North, and that there is no easy alternative road access for freight to those areas, please make a submission to the plan at www.nrc.govt.nz/haveyoursay or pick up a submission form from your local library and lodge a submission before the closing date of January 30.
Let's see if the power of the people can make a change for the better.
SHERYL BAINBRIDGE
NRC Candidate
Cooper's Beach
Time to squeak
Last week's NRC meeting about the future of land transport in Northland was an eye-opener.
Seems the NRC Land Transport Committee thinks that the Puhoi to Warkworth highway is more important than making sure we in the Far North have a resilient highway system that will function in a time of ever-increasing 'weather events'. I was not impressed that this Whangarei-centric organisation seems to think we in the Far North should be continued to be treated like a colony, like some far-flung outpost where raw materials can be extracted at the lowest cost, the profit centralised somewhere else, leaving us to pick up the tab for the continuing destruction of our roads.
No one could answer my question as to how much road user charges are generated in Northland. My point was that I felt we were getting fleeced. These big rigs, soon to be operating up to 54 tonnes, are paying their way, but all the money goes to Wellington, where they use some fancy formula to decide who gets it. Heaps is spent in Auckland sorting out its ever-increasing congestion while the Far North is largely forgotten. Bugger that!
The bare minimum they could do is storm-proof SH1. It's our lifeline. Have you ever been stuck at Rangiahua where SH1 crosses the Waihou River? The single-lane bridge drops down going south, making it all but impassable during a 'weather event.' Same goes for the bottom of the Moerewa Hill. And a couple of bridges at Taipa and Kaeo on SH10 would relieve the congestion caused by Aucklanders up here on holiday.
At the end of the day, fancy formulas aside, it's the squeaky wheel that gets the oil, and now is your chance to squeak! The draft regional land transport plan 2015 - 2021 is open for submissions. I suggest every driver in the Far North get a copy from the regional council offices at 192 Commerce Street (or online) and have a read. Like me, you will probably choke on it.
Whangarei, Whangarei and Whangarei seem to be the focus of this document, including a four-lane highway from Auckland to Whangarei. That's a nice thought to have when you're stalled in a line of traffic that can't pass through the floodwaters at Rangiahua or Kaeo.
Be quick, because you only have until January 30 before submissions close. You can do it online at www.nrc.govt.nz/haveyoursay. Let them know what you think of their plan and what you would like to see happen instead.
MIKE FINLAYSON
NRC Candidate
Herekino
One possibility
I wanted to give you my personal gut instinct about what happened to the missing diver at Cable Bay, and possibly the missing woman.
A great white shark, a size beyond anything we have seen in these waters for a long, long time, followed a large fish in from the deep sea. He then took the diver, mistaking him for a seal. It is their behaviour to take their prey in their jaws and swim out to sea, drowning their prey in the process, and stay below the surface the whole time, which would explain why there were no witnesses.
It is the shark's territory, and if my instinct is right, please get the message out there not to let anyone hunt it.
I should add that there is safety in numbers, not swimming above the waistline or early evening and morning (feed times). Respectfully it will move on eventually.
RACHEL
Kaitaia
An insult
What an insult to past generations for the hard work and money they put in to build the New Zealand rail network. Such a grand feat. In the mid-1800s early 1900s with such limited machinery, and yet such a great asset for the people and the economy, an asset that should have been maintained and built upon.
Sad as it may be, governments over the past 40 years have allowed the railways to be run down, sold off to two private companies who have asset-stripped rolling stock and rail workshops, also making many jobs redundant, closing lines along with the loss of many small businesses.
The whole rail network was nearly completed apart from Rangiahua to Kaitaia in the Far North, the Rimutaka/Pahiatua/Mangateinoka link connection, and a link from Oakleigh to Marsden Point Wharf, the only New Zealand Port without a rail network.
Apart from the extension of the Matamata line with the building of the Kaimai rail tunnel in the late '60s/early '70s to link Tauranga port, now a very busy rail link, no other major rail construction has taken place since 1963, when the Milson deviation was built, by-passing the trains going through the centre of Palmerston North.
When one considers the billions of dollars spent building and repairing roads over the last 50 years, and the billions required to upgrade and repair the damage being done to council roads and state highways by large trucks, being paid for by high costs to motorists and ratepayers, one asks why more money is not invested into the railways, which would have long-term advantage for the whole country and a valuable asset for our future generations.
Each train would take some 60 truck and trailer units off the main roads if a rail link from Kaitaia to Marsden Point was built. Not only logs, but milk and much more could leave the Far North by rail, but empty wagons could return with oil, diesel, petrol, containers, fertiliser and much more.
Let's see some of the money the government got from the sale of NZ Railways to Wisconsin, along with the taxes, GST and dividends, going to the government each year to waste, being invested back into the now Kiwi Rail network, a far greener and safer way of transport than road, as well as an asset for future generations, along with employment income and skills for people, growing something generations will be proud of, just as I and many others were proud when we inherited NZ Railways from our forefathers.
JOHN BASSETT
Diggers' Valley
Clueless
To the piece of scum that trespassed on my property on Tuesday January 13 and let a flare off about one metre away from my old dog in her kennel. Don't you know there's a fire ban on, you twit?
I haven't got a clue about what you were trying to achieve, so instead of skulking around in the dark, grow some balls and come see me face to face, in daylight.
LEONIE
Victoria Valley
