Letters to the editor: Tauranga city looking scruffy; developing good government

Readers say long grass is making Tauranga look scruffy. Photo / Mead Norton

OPINION:

“Tauranga City Council has dropped the ball, in my view, and because of the long grass in our reserves, we can’t find it.

The meaning of recreation, a word used to define a reserve type, is an activity done for enjoyment when one is not working.

Unfortunately, due to the length of grass in Tye Park there was no family cricket being played, and no kicking a ball around over the Xmas/New Year period.

Also, our city is being made to look Third World due to overgrown berms.

Could there be an alternative motive such as commercial haymaking, or perhaps it’s just a mistaken idea of trying to save pennies while splurging dollars in other areas?”

- Mark Bougen, Welcome Bay

“It’s two years since the Minister of Local Government sacked our elected councillors and mayor.

A lot of resentment and money could have been saved by keeping the councillors, who weren’t a bad bunch, and electing a new mayor.

For the sake of democracy, that’s what should have happened.

I have never seen Tauranga so scruffy.

The berms are long and largely neglected, very few edges have been trimmed, most of the cesspit grates are covered, there are weeds growing out of the footpaths, the kerbs, the traffic islands and, in places, the roads.

There is rubbish everywhere, bent and broken street signs, squatters in the parks and roadsides.

Traffic lights haven’t been brought up to date, Cameron Rd still isn’t finished, Maunganui Rd, ditto.

Everyone happy?”

- Dan Russell, Tauranga

“Simon Wilson (Opinion, January 18) identifies how difficult this election will be, given the people trying to undermine our democracy.

All candidates deserve to be able to campaign with safety and respect, and we must support that principle.

There are many other important issues as well. We have just been through a particularly challenging pandemic.

Despite the problems, though, we have come out with a very low mortality rate compared with most other countries.

Yet we risk making the error that many other nations have, of throwing out governments that have brought them through very challenging periods, irrespective of how well they have done.

Such action may be satisfying, but hardly a way of developing good government.

There is a more vital issue than that though.

We are faced, in my view, with choosing between a government committed to restoring the systems of the past, with all their inequity, stressed public services, waste and pollution, and a government seeking to bring the nation, however uncertainly, into a more sustainable and inclusive world in which our young people can see a future.

It is much more comforting to return to the familiar past, but we need to face the costs and chaos arising from unrelenting climate change and environmental decay, and be serious about creating the future that our children deserve.”

- Gray Southon, Tauranga

The Bay of Plenty Times welcomes letters from readers. Please note the following:

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