The Bay of Plenty Times welcomes letters and comments from readers. Below you can read the letters we have published in your newspaper today.
TODAY'S LETTERS:
Transport Centre an excellent example
The need to lower The Strand railway line suggested by correspondent Paul Gurran (Your View, May 21) is the most sensible suggestion regarding any plans for development of waterfront. He gives the example of the recently completed New Lynn Rail Trench which should be compulsory viewing for Priority One experts.
Not only has this project greatly improved traffic movements but it also incorporates a modern integrated bus/rail transport centre. Tauranga's shortsighted Clayton's bus terminal consisting of a row of wooden seats along windy Willow St is just another example of poor planning with no thought for future passenger needs.
We must look ahead and, in the long term light rail services between, say, Paengaroa and Apata should be considered as fuel costs and CBD parking problems escalate. Tauranga should be prepared for this by setting aside a location for a first class integrated transport centre on the railway corridor.
As a frequent user of the New Lynn Transport Centre when in Auckland, I have to say that it compares most favourably with such complexes I have seen overseas.
Here we are hampered by the false premise that all buses must dominate the information centre which is a complete fallacy and certainly not the case elsewhere such as Whangarei, Auckland, Taupo, Napier, Christchurch and Dunedin.
Samuel Smith, Otumoetai
Quick response
So often one can hear complaints about the services (or rather the lack of it) of the Tauranga City Council but this time the council services deserve a feather in their cap for the way it reacted to a complaint that I rang about last Saturday afternoon.
When walking outside my house in Sunbrae Grove, I noticed that water was flowing out of the steel drain, connected to the sewage line in our street. A foul smell gave away the source of the problem. Immediately I rang the Tauranga council, it was just about 4 in the afternoon. In spite of it being a weekend, the council services reacted promptly, within 30 minutes a council inspector had arrived and found what the cause of the problem was. Within an hour council staff was in our street, clearing up the blockage. It took two people with two council trucks to solve the problem, caused by tree roots.
At 6pm (only two hours after my initial phone call) everything was back to normal.
Nothing but praise for the Tauranga council staff that handled this problem very professionally. Congratulations on a job done well.
Ben de Kleijnen, Mount Maunganui
Smokefree NZ
Well done to feature writer Carly Gibbs for her well written article, "Smoking is my choice - why give up now?" (Bay of Plenty Times Weekend, May 16). The story clearly highlights the raft of challenges we all face if New Zealand is to be smokefree by 2025.
Challenging as it appears, the Heart Foundation totally supports the aspirational goal of a smokefree New Zealand because everyone will benefit. Children will be healthier, families will have more money to spend and the health system will be under less stress.
It was heartening to read the attitude of local teens who say it's no longer cool to smoke these days. Young people expressing views like this give us hope we will not see yet another generation of smokers needing help to stop in 10 years' time.
The facts about smoking are frightening and all too familiar. Smoking robs 5000 families a year of a loved one. Smoking related illness also forces thousands of workers from their jobs and curtails busy, active lifestyles.
Without doubt - smoking is a hard habit to break. But perhaps it's something Tauranga's smokers might like to contemplate on May 31, World Smokefree Day?
Sandy Ritchie, Heart Foundation, Tauranga
Lucky Kiwis
That was a lovely tale I read about President Ahmadinejad of Iran who accused the west of "draining the clouds to cause drought" and within minutes it rained (News, May 23).
He is a firebrand with an ego as big as Dolly Parton's hair and an imagination to match.
It is an amusing story but it does seriously demonstrate how some of the East hates all of the West - and yet, the leaders of these strict regimes must be aware of the emigration patterns.
I doubt too many of us would choose to emigrate to an eastern country for the lifestyle and yet there is a flood of refugees leaving those regimes by the plane-load, some so desperate to escape that they will pay their life savings to risk their lives on a leaky boat in the dead of night.
The key word is "escape" which once again tells us how the other half of the world live. I am so grateful that I was born in New Zealand and have the freedom to write this.
Robin Bishop, Pyes Pa
Text Views
* Re waterfront makeover i think its a great idea as we need to do some thing with it Scott Jones
* papamoa flyover design looks 2 complicatd. It only needs 1 big roundabout 4 domain rd and sh2. Deal with tara domain intrsectn using trafic lites. Steve, ponga.
* Fully agree wth other readers re hardy benefit rip off. justice system joke. shd hav had max penalty.
* My suggestion 2 mount and tga golf clubs is that they offer simon bridges hon membership 2 someone in the community who does voluntary work and cud never afford the 1000 2 join or is a status thing. Colleen gourlay
* Well done Leanne Hardy. Your parents must be so proud of you.
* Wat an awful accident! I had a larg piece of flying clay hit me in th head @ baypark, saw stars an that was enuf put me off :-( Was rite up undr corprat boxes'
* Tsum txts - netwrk cant cope wen evryones txtng -dangerous false sense of security-Tim Short
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