Letter to the Editor, Tuesday July 28, 2015

Dim view of VIP

Having just read "An end to those 'dark az' nights" (Northland Age, July 16) I write in an emotional state bordering on apoplexy. Your paper reports that the Far North District Council's "general manager infrastructure and asset management" - with a name like that it must be a very important position, commanding I hope an appropriately very important salary - "thanks those responsible for bringing Kaitaia's lighting issues to the council's attention".

Does this very important person never go out at night? I was in Kaitaia on a Friday night about a month ago. I commented to the not very important people I was with, that there must be a power cut of some sort, it seemed so dark. The same very important person then goes on to advise us that "in the midterm, the council planned to undertake a district-wide review of lighting. Where lighting was required, a business case would be submitted to the New Zealand Transport Agency to subsidise design and installation".

"Dependent on the outcome of the review and subsequent application to the NZTA, work will be prioritised and programmed for completion over a number of years."

Surely we are talking of posts with lamps on them - hence the name "lamp posts". Mangonui Lions could come over one Saturday morning and do the job.

Dave Shalders is bound to have some secondhand lamp posts out the back of his farm in Awanui - but I suppose Occupational Health and Safety would have a fit!

And alongside "Dark az' nights" your paper reports on Minister Nathan Guy doing a terrific impression of Sean Johnson at his slippery, weaving, ducking and diving best as he denies any responsibility for the "swamp kauri" fiasco.

And then there is DoC and their kereru, and corrections with their Friday Fight Nights. It goes on and on, with the respective ministers claiming to be blissfully unaware - ignorance is bliss.

I know there is not much of an alternative at the moment, but we all should be wary of third- and fourth-term governments - witness the Muldoon, Clark, Howard (in Australia) and now the Key Government.

They all spend more time protecting their butts from past "cock ups" than actually leading the country forward with innovative and new ideas.

(Abridged - Editor)

G P STANAWAY

Chucks Cove