Letters: Common sense should prevail over Mount Base Track

Common sense should prevail over Base Track, a reader says.

It is encouraging that [Tauranga City] council and Heritage New Zealand are working on a plan to make public the result of Mauao archaeological investigations. Many historical findings are already well documented and studied by those with an interest.

Areas of Mauao have always been prone to slippage. Given the publication of escalation costs to re-route the base track, could common sense not prevail, thus avoiding further delays?

If city libraries, tourist facilities, streetscape and roading projects, water treatment, art galleries, museums, emergency housing and a plethora of other financial demands are indeed those most sought by the public, then there is a need to focus on reality.

What the public wants is for the existing base track to be restored without delay.

Regardless of age, personal or physical status, people would again be able to circumnavigate one of New Zealand's most beautiful short walks.

Restore the track to what it was two years ago. Deal with other improvements as city finances allow.

Ray Malcolm
Mount Maunganui

Befuddled by cost

Really TCC, $2.2m to repair the slip on the base track? Are sure you haven't befuddled that with the cost to put a sealed road around the base?

B Conning
Brookfield

Telling it like it is

It's taken some time, but we now have a councillor giving the ratepayers the facts about the Mauao base track dilemma. Like it or not Steve Morris is telling it as it is.

I can just hear the retired farmers and contractors [whoever heard of Health and Safety] saying just give me a front end loader.

But pushing all that aside, we now again have the council at the forefront of what has all the marks of poor decision making aligned to the costs involved in building temporary steps with restrictive accessibility and virtually at the early part of the track.

It may take a minor miracle to get this resolved, and regrettably, Steve has only one vote here

Vic Sterling
Pyes Pa

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