Letters to the editor: Hope Cameron Rd cycleway will be better used than Mount

Roadworks on Cameron Rd. Photo / Alex Cairns

OPINION

I have been to the Mount a few times in the past month and travelled on Maunganui Rd to Hewletts Rd, where the lovely cycleway is.

But I have not seen one bike rider on the cycleway.

I saw three girls on e-scooters on Saturday, July 14 but they were on the footpath.

My only hope is that the cycleway being built on Cameron Rd will get more use. However, I rarely see a bike rider on the parts of the cycleway that are complete.

I, like many others, really feel for the business owners, not only during the construction of bus lanes and cycleways but in the future when most of the parking outside shops will have gone.

Wendy Galloway

Ōmokoroa

Good on you, Christine

Someone has come out fighting and the Bay of Plenty Times is reporting it (Landlord makes legal threat, News, July 15).

Good on you, Christine Currie.

There have been plenty of complaints about clients being unable to access commercial premises and about removing traditional parking spaces, without which, customers will stay away.

Why on Earth does the council want to close the 7th Ave access?

I believe the council needs to look at how it consults with local residents and ratepayers.

Someone needs to talk to affected individuals and explain how they will be affected.

The council, in my opinion, must apologise to these people and sort out their problems.

Dan Russell

Tauranga

Social problems can affect social workers

Your recent article, the “Perfect storm” hitting social workers (News, July 7), has been building up for a long time, just like our weather.

I agree with Te Tuinga Whānau Support Services staff that the profession is in crisis. The grey crisis cloud of burnout and violence has hovered over the profession for years.

The public may not know that about half of social workers locally do not work for Oranga Tamariki but in the community, educated for and working under the same stressful situations.

An initial social work qualification takes four years of tertiary study. Many students are not school leavers but parents with children, owing loans. Apart from being an underpaid profession, the work takes an emotional toll when working with disadvantaged, abused, sad or sick people with social needs that are often difficult to meet.

I support Tommy Wilson in recognising that burnout is a real issue in this climate of a cumulus of social problems.

Trish Hanlen

Bethlehem

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