Letters to the editor: Car parking, council legacies, Christmas light displays and traffic.

Pllans to put a three-hour time limit on parking in the city are ridiculous, a reader writes. Photo/File

Questions over parking

I see from the article in Bay of Plenty Times (News, December 20) that the elected members of the Tauranga City Council have deferred action on CBD parking once again, this time primarily because "legal advice that not consulting could leave the council open to action under the Local Government Act".

Firstly, that is a legal opinion, not a statement of fact.

Secondly, it 'could', not 'would', expose the council, therefore one can equally argue that it 'should not' expose the council.

I wonder if the councillors' opinions on parking would change if their reserved carparks were removed and they had to park on the street. (Bonus – it might lead to shorter meetings.)

Some of us remember councillor Elder getting the parking wardens' hours of operation changed after she received a parking fine at 4.30pm while attending a council meeting.

A Gifford
Tauranga

Why the secrecy?

Among all the information council is putting out about proposed new buildings we have seen no mention at all of a replacement building for council office workers, replacing the building just demolished in the wake of a black mould "scare".

We wonder at the apparent secrecy surrounding this. There must be some plan in place to rehouse the council workers.

We would have thought that this would have been priority No 1 for the council. Why the secrecy? Has the plan to rehouse the workers been lost or just forgotten

What is the cost of temporarily accommodating the workers elsewhere?

Don Edser
Tauranga

Lawn not a car park

I am in awe of the light display at the veterinary clinic on Welcome Bay Rd. It really is very impressive. The team can congratulate themselves on a job well done.

I really don't like to complain (particularly at this time of year), but what would be even more impressive, is that people who stop to look and take photographs of this remarkable display, would remember three things:

1. People are trying to sleep next door, so please keep your noise levels down.

2. People next door work at night, so would, therefore, like to be able to get out of their driveway, and have access to it when coming home. Please don't park across it.

3. My front lawn is not a car park. Please stay off it. We get penalised for damage to the grass.

Amanda Faulkner
Welcome Bay

Parking plan ridiculous

Councillors putting a three-hour time limit on parking in the city is ridiculous.

They obviously do not enjoy going to the movies, some movies are over two hours long, then going to a cafe after and then possibly looking around the few shops left in the city.

I love going to the movies: two hours of sitting doing nothing, great relaxing. I will still go to movies but as for going to a cafe and shopping after, I will find somewhere else.

A while ago I thought I would park in Bethlehem, thinking there was a bus from there into Tauranga along the expressway but no, the bus goes around all the suburbs.

Wendy Galloway
Omokoroa

Council needs to refocus

With reference to Gary Horan's letter (Letters, December 20) I would have to agree with some comments that he has referred to.

Sadly the present council and mayor have inherited the issue of Tauranga's inadequate infrastructure from previous elected councils.

Our new mayor and more recent councillors now have to deal with the issues and problems that have been ignored or delayed by previous councils.

The present council needs to refocus and deal with these major issues that we are facing rather than spending money on some of the items that people would refer to as non-essential.

Jane Baker
Tauranga