Recent publicity regarding the services of the rescue helicopter in Rotorua being discontinued motivates me to write with a suggestion. If finance is the main factor in discontinuing this service perhaps council funds could be redirected towards this service.

The $500k that is being spent on a statue at the southern entrance to the city could be donated to the rescue helicopter service in Rotorua. The statue will become a distraction to motorists entering the roundabout. We are constantly being told that the need to focus one's attention on the road is of paramount importance.

The funds would go a long way to perhaps ensuring that the rescue helicopter service is retained in this city.

These council funds would be a more useful use of ratepayers' monies and help to save the lives of folk either visiting our city as tourists of in fact the ratepayers of the city.

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ANGLENE CARLE
Rotorua

Readers on the Rotorua Daily Post Facebook page react to PM Jacinda Ardern announcing a government ban on new oil exploration.

- Well hope she gonna provide alternatives. Leaves us at mercy of overseas cartels.
- It's not a complete immediate ban on all. It's a ban on new oil and gas exploration. Whoever has a permit already will be able to keep going until their permits expire.
We need to be doing this, moving away from fossil fuels and looking at more sustainable ways to provide energy.
- Plenty of sustainable alternatives already exist - walking, biking and horse riding are just a few.
- Excellent!
- Ka pai, all good!
- For those lefties, I presume you will walk, ride a bike or only use electric vehicles with batteries that nobody knows how to dispose of.
- We have to start doing something now.
- Good! Now to ban these other countries from bottling our water up and taking it overseas.
- Could well have far-reaching consequences.
- Let's start leading the way again and looking after our environment.
- Crazy ... The better option is to force us all to ride bikes, cook over fires and to build more dams. Then the oil/gas industry would go bust and the problems she is afraid of would be solved.
- 'Let's do this'? I think she's done it alright.
- If she says yes, she's wrong. If she says no, she's wrong. It's a thankless job.
- Well done.
- Good move. If humans are independently too short sighted to move away from a finite source of energy like fossil fuels, then they need a push. Hopefully this is followed up with some huge initiatives on renewable energy.
- Has anyone given a thought to those in the oil industry? Especially in Taranaki. How are their families going to cope? Those workers have already worked their way up from the bottom on wages less than the minimum and now they are advised they can retrain.
- About time.
- Love it.
- Wait until the price of oil goes over $100 a barrel and then wait for the flip flop.
- People will keep on driving their cars and buses. So we'll keep using the same about of oil, but instead of that oil being extracted in New Zealand where workers are protected by Labour laws and safety laws, it will be extracted in places like Nigeria where life is cheap.