I believe the Napier City Council has failed to meet its statutory obligation under the Reserves Act to consult with the community over this proposal.
Firstly, the letter of notification only gave residents nine days to respond. Secondly, it made it clear that the pathway was a fait accompli and, thirdly, the letter was only sent to a selected group of households - those whose properties face the reserve - thus failing to take account of the opinions of the larger community, such as those whose properties back on to the reserve and those who are frequent users but who live elsewhere.
Selective notification and a nine-day time-frame does not constitute consultation but a tokenistic charade.
It sends a clear message to this community that either its views are unworthy or that the council is fearful of organised public opposition at a time when cycleways are on the political agenda both locally and nationally.
If this goes ahead, the result will be that many passive, family-oriented activities will become impossible because the available space is divided by an incongruous concrete strip with fast-moving traffic.
The proposal in the context of the Taipo Stream reserve constitutes an intrusion, an invasion on a well-established nature corridor.
John Wise,Taradale
Truck solutions
Re: Push to keep trucks off Parade (Letters, November 17).
Any road-transport funding is welcome, but will it really solve the problem of ridding the parade of trucks? I think not. In the background of the photograph shown [in the story] is a logging truck, most probably from Central Hawke's Bay, and I question what it is doing on Marine Pde.
There are already numerous routes for trucks to use to gain access to the port, but these are ignored regularly.
Surely the expressway route is adequate to cope with the current traffic volume; it's hardly bumper-to-bumper congestion, so why does it need upgrading?
I would have thought the funding would have been better spent on the proposed new Link Rd from Awatoto to the expressway, or upgrading the Meeanee Rd link to the expressway, thus offering an alternative route from the coastline road.
The ultimate solution of banning trucks from Marine Pde lies with the Napier City Council, as it is not a state highway.
The parade is the responsibility of the NCC, and it has the power and the means to say what and who can use it.
For years the NCC has been made aware of the problems and solutions offered by various lobby groups, which it has chosen to ignore.
Richard Barfoot, Napier
Lost our way
In years gone by this country of ours flourished and had the potential to continue in that direction.
But look long and hard at where we are today.
Surely the first priority should be the overall welfare of people at a grassroots level, so that with a healthier and happier population everything else falls into place after that.
Along the way, the priorities of the powers that be have shifted away from supporting many sectors of the population towards how our country is seen image-wise and on a superficial level to the rest of the world.
Support and funding for the necessities of life in the areas of healthcare, schooling, special needs and the closure of many vital support networks, to name but a few, is leaving too many people falling between the cracks, suffering, struggling and finding it difficult to make ends meet and cope with every day life.
Our country is losing its heart, and balance needs to be restored with a firmer and fairer approach.
With the well and the wealthy taken such good care of and thought so highly of, the majority have little faith or interest in bringing about the change needed to restore our country to its rightful state.Jeni SargentNapier
