Letters: Too noisy for some customers

Noisy shops and a ratepayers' group 'jargon' are the topics of today's letters.

Listen to your customers

We agree entirely with the points made in the Rotorua Daily Post (Letters, June 5) by Laraine A Barker.

The noise that pervades, and assaults our ears, in retail stores is quite unnecessary.

Management of these shops/cafes, etc, need to heed the thoughts and wishes of their customers - perhaps endure a half hour sample of their "entertainment" themselves.

A recent visit to a popular local cafe with another couple proved to be a disaster, as one of our group with a cochlear implant was so distressed at not being able to hear, or join in on the conversation, due to the excessive background noise.

It's time the customers spoke up.

N and S Yockney
Rotorua

Report contains 'irrelevant jargon'

The report on the Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayers' submission on the Spatial Plan discussion document prompted me to find it on their website.

I found that it has 21 pages and over 9000 words. Most of it has little or nothing to do with spatial planning. Much is a recycling of political rhetoric from the RDRR's failed electoral campaign.

It includes irrelevant jargon such as: "The mayor's driving values comprise an idiosyncratic mix of ego-centric localism, neo-tribalism, progressivism, environmentalism and socialism."

More seriously, much of its argument is based on either a deliberate or ignorant misinterpretation of the opening paragraph of the mayor's introductory comments, where she mentioned the need "to PROVIDE for ongoing growth in the future prosperity and wellbeing of Rotorua".

The RDRR's response to this is, "the mayor's open-ended promise that the council will fund perpetual growth in prosperity and wellbeing from increases in rates and debt is unsustainable and unwise".

Anyone with any slight understanding of planning processes will know that there is a huge difference between providing for and funding. It is true that if substantial growth does occur, the council will face a demand for expanded infrastructure.

However, later in its submission, the RDRR says "the evidence is that Rotorua is more likely to achieve comparatively low growth".

If they are correct, the demand for expanded infrastructure will not occur. This is another example of the contradictory rhetoric that we have come to expect from the RDRR.
(Abridged)

KEITH GARRATT
Ngongotaha