Letters to the editor: Retailers should take responsibility for abandoned trolleys

Discarded supermarket trolleys in Rotorua. Photos / Laura Smith

OPINION:

Your article (News, April 4) exposes the cost of retrieving shopping trollies in and around the Rotorua CBD. It costs ratepayers $5000 a month for a Rotorua Lakes Council contractor to hunt down a return them.

No surprises here. As a resident of Glenholme, I see abandoned trollies every day.

I put the onus completely on retailers. There is technology available to combat this problem.

In Dunedin, a New World supermarket has fitted its trollies with a device that locks the wheels when they’re taken outside the carpark. An electronic key is used by staff to unlock it again.

The $30,000 cost will easily be recouped in the year.

But why would our retailers bother in Rotorua when the public is paying for retrieval?

Lesley Haddon

Rotorua

A rubbish idea

I have a bee in my bonnet, prompted by Rotorua Lakes Council’s actions to address a wasp issue at the Blue Lake by removing rubbish bins.

I am a member of a group that each week patrols the edge of the lake reserve, checking traps for vermin. Most weeks, we also collect some of the wide range of rubbish dumped on the reserve. Such is the amount and variety that we have even made a trip dedicated solely to rubbish removal.

The reserve is, after all, the location for all manner of community activities and a prime tourist attraction. It is an area of which we should be proud, rather than embarrassed due to the extent of rubbish. The council’s hope that people will take their rubbish with them is ‘pie in the sky’ [thinking] – and there are enough items of junk food containers there at any one time to prove the point.

I am no expert in wasp control, but surely there must be a better solution than one which will simply make the rubbish problem get out of control altogether.

The only potential benefit will be my group’s catch numbers.

Richard Pryce

Rotorua

Pups, Posie and privilege

We have two dogs. The other day, they were bathed, had their nails clipped and groomed to their nasal, satisfying best. In this privileged land, we can do these things. It’s normal, seemingly, as I don’t live in a country [where I’m] wondering when my next mouthful will be found, not knowing that a war many thousands of miles away ensures that the next grain shipment may never come.

This rant brings me, somehow, to Posie Parker. We, reluctantly it seems, allowed her into our fair country to speak of women’s rights, then never showed her the courtesy due a guest. Whether we agree with her opinions or not, we should have courteously listened and then drawn our personal conclusions as to her views.

In my view, the kind of anarchy displayed in Auckland does nothing to enhance our global reputation.

I have to wonder if my privileged lifestyle is under threat, and in not too many tomorrows, will I be wondering when the next grain shipment will arrive?

John Williams

Ngongotahā

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