Letters: Zero tolerance needed on begging and rough sleeping

A zero tolerance approach is needed for rough sleepers, says a reader. Photo / Getty Images

Thank you Tommy Wilson (Opinion, November 12) for succinctly explaining why begging and rough sleeping should be banned.

Most of these people do have an income (the benefit) and most are funding an addiction.

Help to reverse their situation is available but they must choose to engage with the support offered; that requires some personal responsibility and commitment.

Allowing rough sleeping and begging just enables these people to continue their self-destructive ways.

Many are menacing to business owners, their customers and the wider community, which is unacceptable.

Having recently returned from overseas it was evident the cities where a blind eye is turned to begging and the places where it is not tolerated.

In the former, it often felt like running a gauntlet.

Tauranga is trying to grow and thrive and attract more visitors.

The presence of beggars is a huge turnoff to the majority and there should be zero tolerance.

The five metre rule is just nonsense.

Fiona McAllister
Mount Maunganui

Public transport needed

Margaret Murray-Benge (Letters, November 17) writes that cycleways are not needed and the money would be better spent elsewhere.

This outdated thinking is common amongst a generation who were privileged to have had the freedom to drive their cars without congestion.

The reality today and into the future is totally different to what they have enjoyed: Families have more cars and the population has increased.

More and bigger roads are not the solution.

Public transport including buses and trains are what Tauranga needs plus, for those of us who want a healthy and fast way of getting around, cycling and scooters on safe cycleways.

I have just returned from a visit to Auckland where both scooters and bikes were being extensively used on the new cycleways there.

Russell Wenn
Oropi