Letters: Home build headaches

TERRY Coxon's recent letter is right on the money.

At the striking of the rates last year, Whanganui had 17,940 residential houses, so adding 5000 more is an increase of some 28 per cent.

Although that might be a great boost for Whanganui, it is nothing more than one of Steve Baron's pipe dreams.

As Terry pointed out, finding private developers to source the land and then go though the hoops of a resource consent would be next to impossible, and getting council to provide the services (water, sewerage, stormwater, roading) will cost many tens of millions of dollars and council does not have this money in its kitty.

This council is doing a good job in trying to reduce its debt, however it is still too close to its borrowing limit and repayment/interest levels to take on a project of this size.

Steve states that council must control spending and that the reduction of debt must be a high priority.

However, supporting a Whanganui version of KiwiBuild at this time would go against both those premises.

We need citizens on council who have their head in the right place not those who read between the lines.

JIM WHITE
Castlecliff

A bridge too far

The best laugh I've had for a while was former councillor Stephen Palmer putting down the current councillors talking about replacing the Dublin Street Bridge.

The Colosseum, too, could last forever with appropriate maintenance, but it has long outlived its original purpose.

Someone has to talk and start acting on the replacement or augmentation to facilitate progress of cross-river traffic, because this bridge, built to serve the world of 100 years ago, does not serve the 21st century well and blocks progress on the eastern side of the river to the point where estate agents are fully aware of the problem of crossing the river at the beginning and end of the business day.

Historically, Wanganui East was always a self-contained suburb and is being forced to return to that with isolation exacerbated by river crossing problems.

What is fact, but does not fit theory, is that traffic coming on to the bridge from Jones St gives way to nothing. Another fact is that traffic travelling to town from Aramoho via Somme Parade also gives way to nothing, so even the Jones St drivers eventually get slowed. With all the problems on the Parapara since 2015 there is now little heavy traffic entering town from SH4, so traffic trying to access the bridge from either side of Anzac Parade no longer has that heavy traffic breaking the stream on to the bridge.

As Stephen Palmer will be aware, to cross the river from Bastia Hill, the City Bridge will always be the best option, whichever part of the city we need to access, because with traffic lights everyone gets a fair go.

That never happens at the Dublin Street Bridge.

We have to accept the stupidity of having two modern bridges with good traffic flows downstream from the geographical restriction of Shakespeare Cliff and Durie Hill and just one dated thoroughfare serving everyone upstream from there,

The future of river crossings is a problem that, sooner or later, has to be addressed before Wanganui East is driven to seeking full independence — the inevitable consequence of the isolation now forced on them by troubled traffic flows.

ELIZABETH STILES-DAWE
Whanganui
(Abridged — Editor)
Labour's clean-up job

More right-wing nonsense in the editorial, I see. (Chronicle, January 30).s
Barry Soper contends that "Labour spent the year appointing committees, setting up reviews, and inquiries essentially to tell them how to conduct the business of government".

No, Barry. They set them up to determine and clean up all the damage from the previous nine years.

PETER RUSSELL
Whanganui

Support for living wage

Tim Dower (Chronicle, Jan 29) takes parents to task for allowing their children to attend school hungry.

Does he not realise we are a low-wage economy with high real estate prices and therefore rent. If you are paying 60 — 70 per cent of income on rent, the rest is a struggle.

It is to our shame that Kidscan supplies food for 20 per cent of the roll for 742 schools.
I agree we should level the playing field and show them how to do the right thing for their children by making the minimum wage the living wage.

So, I would like to ask, is the Chron a living wage employer?

ELAINE HAMPTON
Durie Hill