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:
MP's Bay focus at fore - here and in Beehive
I do not know what brownie points your correspondent Rahim Buksh was trying to score by stating that our MP Simon Bridges cannot take any credit for the redevelopment of the police station.
During his time as crown prosecutor here, Simon always had an interest in the police station, and publicly stated so.
When he became MP he immediately started talks with the Western Bay of Plenty Commander and has continued to "push" the station's plight with the ministry in Wellington.
Buksh sneeringly suggests that Bridges concentrates on methods to advance Tauranga!
He is talking about a man who, unlike one of his predecessors, actually lives here and spends every waking hour helping the citizens of Tauranga - holding meetings with various organisations who have concerns about crime, youth, tourism, roading, et al, and carrying these concerns back to Wellington, and [he] is always willing to attend any event, if invited, in order to give his support.
Simon Bridges is the most hard-working MP we have ever had and holds weekly meetings which anyone can attend, who has any concerns.
Perhaps Mr Buksh would like to attend one.
Mary Brooks, Tauranga
Bright side clear
Quite a few of us have been to Christchurch and a lot have visited Australia.
Not so many have been to America and Japan.
But with tsunamis, typhoons, droughts, floods and earthquakes, these places have been brought to our attention. Because of theirs and other disasters around the world, our insurance premiums are to rise at a minimum of 22 per cent.
To remind us that we will have to spend a further $1.4 million to install tsunami warning signals that will not only awaken the 19,000 houses at risk, but also the rest of Tauranga not at risk, and to keep our lifestyle as it is, rates will go up 10 per cent.
To bring our minds back from this gloomy attitude we have only to watch television and read our newspapers and see that in comparison to the rest of the world we are still living in paradise and are able to say to each other "have a nice day".
Rex O'Connor, Tauranga
No need for bus
Re: End of road for Tauranga school bus service (News, June 22).
I totally support the ministry. Kids in cities (I don't include rural kids in my comments) can walk, scooter, cycle or catch the public service.
Going to a school in your own area is a good start.
Bruce Galloway, Tauranga
Police bill fair
Bay of Plenty Times short on news? One would think so from the bold-print headline "Police rack up $144,000 bill" (News, June 20).
Analyse this amount and it equates to five members spending $28,000 each a year to attend police conferences in an effort to combat crime, improve techniques and so on.
What is wrong with that?
It pales into an insignificant amount of taxpayers' money when it has been published that $246,374 of taxpayers' money was forked out to legal counsel acting for the three scumbags - Mikhail Pandey-Johnson, Karl Nuku and Rhys Fournier - involved in the brutal murder of Dean Browne.
Dramatising that waste of money in bold print in an effort to attract peoples' awareness and comments would serve a greater purpose than endeavouring to make the police's legitimate actions a political football.
M.P. O'Connor, (Det Sgt retired), Mount Maunganui
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