Council rides roughshod, too few stand up to them

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Further to the two articles in your paper on 28/12/23 and 04/01/24, on the closure of Turanga Gardens, I would like the opportunity to make further comments in relation to wider issues surrounding this.

Whilst I appreciate the number of people who read the initial article and made it the fifth most viewed story on the Herald website last year,  it saddens and disappoints me that more are not prepared to stand up to this bullying council.

There are many issues in recent times where the council has ridden roughshod over the interests of the general public, and too few are prepared to stand up to them.

What did it cost to have a 54-page report prepared to tell us that the general perceived  pollution levels were  ridiculously low?

How many other areas of the city are polluted to perhaps an even greater degree, when we dumped every type of conceivable waste along our waterways?

To note a couple — the land  from the Grey Street Visitor Information Centre to the airport along the stream, and both sides of the rail line in Lytton Road.

It is obvious that the council has no intention of even mowing the lawn area in the Turanga Gardens, when you see the barriers erected to prevent access.

It is only hearsay, so has no relevance to this situation, but I have heard from more than one source that an ulterior motive is to harvest the gums.

Perhaps something to ponder?

Ray Gowland