Letters to Editor: Hold your horses and carts

Hold your horses and carts on plan

It was with amazement that I read in Hawke's Bay Today someone had the brilliant idea of rejoining Heretaunga St East and West to allow traffic to flow freely through the centre of Hastings.

To add spice to this idea, why not extend Railway Rd to allow north and south motorists to travel easily through the heart of the city?

That this idea had gained enough traction to result in voices being raised in opposition made me realise the idea's proponents had not endured the traffic problems the old road design had caused in the past.

Do the advocates of returning to streets designed for horse and cart traffic realise the problems that had to be overcome to change the existing congested streets of those days to ensure a more free-flowing traffic system in our city?

I was a building contractor and when I had to travel with my employees or materials across town I soon realised it was quicker and easier to use the perimeter roads of the city, Wall Rd, Murdoch Wall Rd, Elwood Wall Rd, and Frederick St, rather than face the delays caused by a congested Heretaunga St.

It was not only the main street that was affected, traffic banked up on the adjoining roads, too, causing lengthy traffic jams.

These problems caused so much anger that shoppers and shopkeepers asked that the solution become a top priority for previous city councils.

The councils employed road planners who strove hard to overcome the problem of motor vehicles using streets planned for horses and carts.

The first idea of using Queen and Eastbourne streets was not completely successful and the ringroad was extended to use St Aubyn and Southampton streets as arterial routes.

This seems to have been so successful that the younger generation have no idea or memory of the problems that have been overcome.

Surely all the money that the Hastings ratepayers have invested in their city over the years on their roads and city centre is not to be wasted?

If the proponents of the scheme were to offer to use their own money to plan a return to the old congested inner streets I would still be hesitant to agree to such a backward step, but to use my money on such an idiotic scheme defies belief.

Alan Scarfe, Hastings

Bottle feeding works

I would like to speak of my disgust over the so-called "breast feeding is best" people shaming others who bottle feed.

Well, I was UNABLE to breast feed my two children and HAD to bottle feed them. I don't understand such do-gooders putting good parents down. Put yourselves in our shoes. Through no fault of our own we had no choice.

Get a grip on reality, keep your opinions to yourselves and leave good parents be. Who are you to lecture and put us down, you don't know us or our situations. My children grew up to be healthy, happy and intelligent after being bottle fed. I was bottle fed 40-something years ago and have had a wonderful life, with no side-effects.

Shame on you all. Look after people that come to you for help, not others.

We don't live in a dictatorship and there is a thing called freedom of choice.

Denise Griffiths, Hastings