Letters: Council must learn from mud blunder

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I am delighted that council has decided to back down and cancel the importation of Korean mud. Public pressure, at times, does count and hopefully the decision makers will have learnt from this huge blunder, that all councillors should be kept in the loop and that the public should at least have some idea of what is going on.

I now hope Mudtopia can progress and be a financial success because taxpayers and ratepayers, whose money is bank-rolling the event, don't like to see financial losses from their hard earned cash. Council debt is large enough without more added to it. I also hope the mayor will recover well from the "political disaster" she forecast if the mud sale was cancelled.

PADDI HODGKISS
Rotorua

The international amusement at the proposed importation of five tonnes of South Korean mud by Rotorua Lakes Council was not so funny.

I lived through the 2001 outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the UK. It was horrendous. It spread quickly to 843 farms and resulted in over 10 million cattle and sheep being slaughtered. The Government called in the Army and closed public footpaths.

Every night we were treated to heartbreaking TV news bulletins showing vast pyres of burning animal corpses. The farmers' milk cheques stopped but eventually they were compensated by the Government for the loss of their animals.

But the financial ripples spread much wider. With tourism being stopped in Wales, the English Lake District and other affected places the farmers soon discovered that their lucrative sideline B & B/farm experience holidays also stopped dead for two years.

Also severely affected was the hospitality industry. Hotels, pubs and restaurants, shops and museums all lost two years income as travel was curtailed but there was no compensation for them. The financial loss to the nation was later estimated at ₤8 billion.

Great credit should go to the Rotorua Daily Post in discovering this folly in the South Korean press and drawing it to the attention of the Rotorua electorate. Holding the council to account is its public duty.

[Abridged]
DAVID PHILLIPS
Rotorua