Your views: Readers' letters

Positive start

The first test of our new council occurred over two full days this week. There is concern amongst our community that costs are neither certain nor justified, and the election had delivered a very clear message -- the WWTP decision needed to be revisited and reviewed.

All 13 mayor and councillors were there, and all 13 were there for the entire two days. Already that is an improvement. All 13 contributed to the debate, all 13 treated each other with respect and listened to all 13's opinions.

I have to say that the contribution to the debate from the seven new members was outstanding. They all have a range of background skills which they displayed over the two days: financial acumen, technical engineering knowledge, and an appreciation for the justified concerns of the community.

There are still matters of concern over the WWTP, but over the two days of the workshop, I believe that we moved a long way along the path to resolving them. A lot of the credit for that lies with mayor Hamish. He allowed opinions to be expressed freely, but still intervened prudently when the debate inevitably strayed. Personally, I am heartened that there is now a willingness to accept that there is, and always has been, a view on the WWTP issue that is contrary to the party line of the last three years.

This council has made a very good start, and once we pass this very serious WWTP issue, I believe that the undoubted skills around the new council table bode well for an enterprising council this term.

ROB VINSEN
Whanganui District councillor

Good and bad

Some concerns and accolades for the citizens of our fair city.

What really bugs me are the mobility scooters that persist in riding on the roads instead of the footpaths. One guy rides around the Castlecliff area on the road with no helmet, and certainly not on the verge. Once I followed him along the new narrow part of Heads Rd as he held up the traffic. Don't get me started on supermarket car parks, either. I've seen some near misses when cars back out; the scooters are hard to see behind them.

I think they are marvellous for people who need them to get around, but shouldn't they have to attend some safety sessions before being let loose?

Now a moan about the nightmare state of the road out to the mole, full of potholes and getting worse. Hamish, on a Saturday or Sunday go out see the hundreds of people there to watch the surfies or just view the ocean. Wear your seatbelt and don't go on a full stomach. Surely it wouldn't be too much to ask to put a grader along there or maybe use the PD boys with shovels and fill.

Now three accolades. The Mars building, on the way out to Castlecliff, with its awesome cats leaning over the building, always makes me feel good driving past. Then, on the corner of Rangiora and Matai streets, a young man has turned an ugly, bare piece of land into an amazing area like a desert garden. It's a real credit to him. Lastly, I love the artwork popping up in various streets on those previously ugly green boxes. They are colourful, creative and eye-catching. (Abridged)

PAULA RODGERS
Whanganui

Imlay milestone

Imlay can congratulate themselves on reaching a 100-year milestone. Special mention must be made of the men who saved Imlay from closure by keeping the communist unionists at bay.

Longburn, Patea and Waitara succumbed to the communists, letting them introduce go-slows, excessive manning and half-day strikes, breaking the companies, guaranteeing closure.

Hawera was not much more than an abattoir, refused to join in the stupidity and grew and grew, even building a works in Te Aroha to stop the flow of cattle from the north, where works were also struggling with low kills caused by union action.

So congratulations to their leaders at the time, Wanganui should be grateful to them.

Some people think Talley's are too tough, but they took over rundown plants and have modernised them, making then competitive, giving some kind of guarantee they have a chance at survival.

G R SCOWN
Whanganui

Chastened

Well, Damian Curtis (letters, November 1), I aimed to be minimally offensive, if at all, when I criticised one political action of a good employer in Whanganui, a successful international businessman, a good Christian man in this community who has been widely praised for his good works, who organised youth clubs for years, but who perhaps just had a brief and uncharacteristic lapse of his high standards over the issue raised in my letter of October 22.

Damian Curtis was right to laugh at my assertion in my letter. I am suitably embarrassed. However, any different critical wording in my letter to do with that new councillor could possibly have been interpreted that I thought his quoted words were reprehensible. His words on the Chronicle's front page of October 21 were certainly not that bad, though obviously I thought they deserved critical comment. For example, it could have sounded terrible had I written on October 22, "In spite of this man's 30-year experience at high political levels locally, he still said ... ".

Fortuitously for the man, his political activities in Whanganui had not reached my ears in Christchurch where I had been working for much of the said 30 years, but his international business prowess and community works had. In my humble opinion, all the good man needed was a figurative "clip around the ear", and, by extrapolation, also the "2030" group as a whole, which I duly gave in my October 22 letter and now, IMHO, I am chastened and the matter is settled and forgotten.

The 2030 group, comprising a minority four-twelfths of the voting power, certainly has enough collected wisdom to settle in well and work together with their fellow councillors. I look forward to reading of great results, formed by consensus in meetings open to the public, from this new council.

STAN HOOD
Aramoho