Our View: U-turn on tsunami sirens welcome

Finally, it appears some common sense is prevailing among our region's civic leaders when it comes to tsunami warning systems.
The issue of how local authorities warn coastal residents of an incoming tsunami has long been controversial - but has gained huge momentum this year since the devastating Japanese earthquake and subsequent tsunami, which claimed thousands of lives.
The Bay of Plenty Times Weekend revealed on Saturday that Bay of Plenty's civil defence chiefs have done a u-turn on tsunami warning sirens after Tauranga threatened to go it alone to protect its 51,000 vulnerable coastal residents.
The Bay's Civil Defence Emergency Management Group convinced Tauranga City Council earlier this year to ditch sirens in favour of other warning systems - a move which attracted much criticism.
Tauranga then decided to investigate sirens.
Now the emergency management group, which comprises local authorities, has succumbed to pressure from Tauranga and will investigate fixed sirens, as well as other warning measures.
The move is welcome and long overdue.
It is this newspaper's view that fixed sirens, along with other measures such as portable plug-in devices and text messaging, are essential to the coast's tsunami warning system.
Of major concern are comments made by emergency management group chair and Opotiki Mayor John Forbes, who despite supporting an investigation of sirens at Friday's meeting appeared to be luke warm about them.
He points out that tsunamis are relatively rare events and questions how much money should be put into warning systems.
The pressure for sirens, he says, is coming more from older residents who roll their eyes when it comes to texting.
He's got to be kidding.
We are talking about people's lives here.
Mr Forbes and the rest of these local body politicians and officials need to get on with sorting this out and stop dilly-dallying.