Letters: April flood causes concern

Flooding in Rotorua in April last year. Photo / Ben Fraser

I am a resident of Glenholme.

My mindset changed on April last year as I watched torrential rain flood my backyard. I was lucky, it swept past my house down the driveway out to the road. Other people in my neighbourhood watched in horror as their homes flooded.

Many cities in New Zealand have aging infrastructure which will not cope with the deluges predicted for the future, courtesy of global warming.

With a new financial year starting will the council use the flooding of last April to reset its priorities? I hope so.

Once you have the word ''flooded'' on your LIM report you can kiss goodbye to your resale expectations. As for getting insurance, well that's a whole different story.

Lesley haddon
Rotorua

World Cup

The four inadvertent overthrows off the bat of Ben Stokes was the critical moment at Lord's.

Had the chasing fielder overhauled the ball inside the boundary the Kiwi-born Englishman would have stood his ground and not attempted to run in deference to the gentleman's agreement which applies in such situations.

Almost certainly New Zealand would have gone on to then win the match and Stokes would have received a knighthood for his sportsmanship.

Supporters of the Black Caps would have thought what a weird and wonderful world it is.

Simon Earle
Rotorua

Airbnbs question
After a brief hour scanning the internet, I have found in excess of 800 Airbnbs in and around the Rotorua area.

Several offered "cash" discounts. This means that in Rotorua there are more than 800 houses that are being denied to the homeless and families desperately seeking homes.

These Airbnbs do not have to comply with the current legislation regarding insulation, etc. With cash payments, many may not be paying full tax on their income.

This is a serious problem facing the whole of New Zealand, it is the furnace beneath the current housing/homes shortage and is probably keeping the price of houses sky high.
What is the Government doing — or planning to do to control it?

Jim Adams
Rotorua

Air bylaw

Being forced to comply with our regional council-imposed air quality bylaw within the Rotorua airshed is going to be a very expensive exercise as we recently found out from a local wood burner shop.

The wood burner emission standard of 1.5 grams of particles per kilogram of dry wood burnt are part of the National Environmental Standards for air quality.

So our regional council decides to impose an emission standard of .6 grams per kg of dry wood burnt (lower than Christchurch, our worst high emission city in NZ) within the Rotorua airshed.

So, people within the airshed be prepared financially because for homes with an existing, old 18-20kw wood burner (especially fitted with a wetback to heat your cylinder) your choice for a new, compliant wood burner has been massively reduced down to two or three models, all without a wetback function to comply with the stupidly low emission standard.

People, I accept our air quality has to be improved by new technology, lower-emission burners but to impose such a low-emission standard is in my opinion unfair and harsh, not to mention plain ridiculous.

(Abridged)
Steve R Franklin
Pukehangi