Ask Phoebe: Paper's zones changing for Super City

Photo / Kenny Rodger

Will suburban newspapers change their distribution with the advent of the Super City? Currently the Eastern Bays paper covers roughly the Eastern Bays ward plus some of Hobson and Tamaki. The same goes for the Western Bays suburban - it roughly covers the Western Bays ward of Auckland City. With the new ward boundaries that will for example erase the existing Western Bays ward, will paper distribution change to reflect this? Christopher Dempsey, Auckland.

The Aucklander, which is published by Herald publisher APN, will extend its distribution to the entire Auckland Council area, from Te Hana, including Warkworth and Wellsford, in the north to the southern boundary near Pukekohe. The Aucklander is also fine-tuning distribution of its four editions in the revised ward and local board zones. The areas most affected are around the former Waitakere City-Auckland City boundaries in Blockhouse Bay, Lynfield, Hillsborough and adjoining suburbs.

At the time of writing Fairfax Media, which publishes the Central Leader, Eastern Courier, Western Leader, North Shore Times and sundry others, had no comment to make.

For several years the streets of Remuera have had boxes containing fibre optic cables apparently not being used. Who owns them and does anyone use them? Norman Milligan, Remuera.

The cable boxes in Remuera are part of Chorus' local telecommunications network. Chorus is the company that operates the network that most telecom providers use. The boxes were originally designed to provide cable services in the early 90s, but were reconfigured to be part of Chorus' copper and fibre optic network, which is still in use to enable provision of phone and broadband services to the Remuera locals.

Waitakere City Council has, over the past year, resealed a lot of Titirangi Rd but the intersection of Titirangi Rd and Margan Ave has been ignored. The outer lane is severely rutted and dangerous, to two-wheeled vehicles in particular. Are there any plans to reseal this section? Also, is it possible for the green light phase at this intersection to be extended by, say, 15 seconds, to help clear the backlog down Rata St every evening? Dennis O'Kane, Titirangi.

Good news. This intersection is on the 2010-11 resealing schedule. And the council will take a look at the light phasing.

We live in Harding Ave in Mt Wellington. It has become increasingly difficult to exit the street across Lunn Ave, to get to Marua Rd. Does the council have any plans to improve this intersection, with a roundabout or lights? There are large kerbs at all four corners which would make this easier then many of the other intersections in the city. Harding Ave residents.

Good news. The council's transport assets network performance manager, Karen Hay, and her team have been liaising with the Stonefields developer, Todd Property, to ensure that that company contributes financially towards an upgrade of the Lunn/Marua/Harding intersection.

It has been agreed that the best thing to do, to mitigate the effects of the development and make things easier for pedestrians, is to put in traffic lights. Stonefields plans to do this in the 2010-11 financial year.