Letters to the editor: Time to ditch colonial planners' quarter-acre paradise dream

The Housing Supply Bill presents and opportunity to redraw the city plans, writes a reader. Photo / Getty Images

Just as rumours that Elvis and The Notorious B.I.G are still very much alive, you'll sometimes catch a whisper of the evanescent quarter-acre property coming onto the market.

Just as those fabled entertainers are long since gone, however, so has the hope of ever owning a property big enough for a cricket pitch and a vege garden.

Blame it on British colonial planners who in the 1850s were designing New Zealand to have properties of "fruitful gardens on quarter-acre paradises" or ex-British MP Austin Mitchell, who referred to NZ as the Half Gallon, Quarter Acre, Pavlova Paradise.

Unbeknown to our colonial planners the way in which we live our lives today couldn't be more different to the way they planned. However, their planning has left us with an expensive hangover in the way of sprawling cities requiring an over-reliance on vehicles, roads and vast distances of ailing water infrastructure.

Last week's announcements by the governing and opposition parties that they endorse increased housing density via the Housing Supply Bill should be taken to like a hip shake (or a booty shake) to our fallen entertainers by councils by redrawing city plans to empower developers to build high-density homes to house people closer to work, shops and amenities. (News, November 2)

Compact cities with ample green space to bring communities together makes sense. Let's act now to ensure future generations do not have to suffer through the housing crisis which has come to define our current time.

Ryan Gray
Rotorua

Euthanasia piece appreciated

I very much appreciate the thoughtful opinion piece by Merepeka Raukawa-Tait 'Euthanasia decision one of my hardest' (Opinion, Nov 3), especially as she is the former executive director of a hospice.

The Ministry of Health has done a good job of setting in place all the statutory bodies required by the End of Life Choice Act.

The law requires the request for assisted dying to be initiated only by the patient; no one else on their behalf. The doctor is not allowed to suggest or recommend assisted dying to the patient.

If your own doctor is unwilling to accept your request for assessment, the Ministry of Health has set up a help service, which can offer guidance to eligible patients and doctors alike.

Ann David
Vice President, End-of-Life Choice Society

Amateurism not ok

A senior lecturer at Massey University described Rotorua Lakes Council's health and safety media updates as "amateurish". (News, October 26)

The definition of amateurism includes the words: characteristic of an amateur, especially in having faults or deficiencies of an amateur; inept.

There have been two public health issues in Rotorua recently, the sewage leak into the lake and the geothermal bore casing failure in Kuriau Park.

The only media used to inform the public initially were Facebook and the council webpage, yet the council insists this was sufficient. It's not. Not everyone uses these media.

The president of Local Government NZ says best practice is to "use all communication channels" available.

"Amateurish" is, in my view, unacceptable in any aspect of council.

The council is paid generously to be professional. That's what we should get.

Paddi Hodgkiss
Rotorua

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