Letters: Councillors right to attend public meeting

PHOTO/FILE

First of all I have to congratulate Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, Raj Kumar and Peter Bentley on their stance with attending the meeting at Ngongotaha. For heaven's sake they are just doing their job - anything less and they wouldn't be getting my vote.

As for the CEO Geoff Williams, you may be correct on the judicial process but you have a duty to listen to the people or do you think you're untouchable? The them and us mentality has long gone just like the dinosaurs. The way to go is communication, communication communication.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that there are going to be 200 extra cars on the road and that's just a start. The road is grid locked now in rush hour and you wonder why there was a meeting of concerned residents.

GAVIN MUIR
Rotorua

A big thank you to the Mokoia Community Association, for hosting such an interesting guest speaker on April 6. Melvyn Bowen - a master-mariner and maritime historian.

His subject: The Wahine Disaster. Mel's knowledge of all things maritime gave me a much better understanding of that tragedy and why the Wahine foundered on that fateful day.

His pictures, weather maps and the course the Wahine was on, as it foundered in that atrocious storm, really brought home the massive intensity Captain Robertson and his crew were under. The 51 men, women and children who lost their lives, and those whom struggled ashore in those harrowing conditions, will be forever remembered today.

Thank you Mel, for sharing your time and knowledge.

PAULEEN WILKINSON
Rotorua