Letters To Editor: Good parents, but ...

Facing Deportation

Regarding the front-page story of Saturday's Hawke's Bay Today on the Chumbers with their New Zealand-born children who were off to Auckland to protest their deportation back to India.

Yes, they may "be wonderful at how they look after and bring up their children" but at the end of the day, Mr and Mrs Chumber are here illegally and have brought children into this world knowing they are overstayers in New Zealand and could face deportation once their deception was uncovered.

Now, they are using their children as pawns in a bid to halt that deportation. Why did the Chumbers not sort out their legal status in this country before starting a family? That would have saved their children from the grief they now face of being separated from their parents.

Joy Dench, Havelock North

Old bikes and ACC

Very interesting crash statistics on the front page of Hawke's Bay Today on Saturday. Broken down they show 54 per cent were caused by cars. Well that makes sense as the majority of vehicles on the road are cars.

Fewer than 1 per cent were caused by trucks, well done to our local truckies, cyclists caused 10 per cent and motorcyclists caused 9 per cent.

There is talk of motorcycles being rated by their kilowatt output, that would mean that all the old bikes that are rated over 601cc would then be correctly gauged for the speeds they can actually achieve. Would this lead to a decrease in the massive and misguided ACC levies that old slow large cc machines pay?

Being just a little sceptical of our politicians and their grasp of how lucrative a cash cow these old bikes are, I doubt it.

W Hicks, Onekawa

Unhappy swimmers

Re: Napier Aquatic Centre

Firstly, I would like to congratulate the editor for giving Patrina Anderson's letter the space it deserves.

I totally agree with all the points she makes regarding public hours for the pool.

Council may not realise it but there are hundreds of members of the public who need pool time to recoup from injuries/operations. There is nothing better than water therapy for hip/knee replacements. Unfortunately the Napier Aquatic Centre has all but shut down the facility for public access. The hours available now are so restricted and there is such uncertainty as to whether there is an event on (birthday parties etc) that you never know whether you will be able to get a swim or not. A birthday party for example can close all 5 lanes of the old pool which leaves the Ivan Wilson pool overcrowded and certainly not conducive to lap swimming or water therapy.

It is only in recent years that the pool has not opened until 11am in the weekends. This has obviously got something to do with money.

Believe me, there are many unhappy swimmers but it is not fair to complain to pool staff who have to try and juggle these times - they don't make the rules.

Napier desperately needs another pool and council might not have noticed that the population has increased since the Ivan Wilson Pool was built and sporting events such as triathlons etc have also increased in popularity, making the pool an obvious place to train.

If council won't look to the future and consider the need for another swimming pool, I would suggest that they reconsider their opening hours and extend them drastically. Surely it's not all about making money - the ratepayers deserve to be able to use this facility.

L  Clare, Napier