Letters: Courts must get tough on bad drivers

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Three hundred and seventy-five killed on our roads! This is not a statistic - it is a very sick joke!

Our courts must get one hell of a lot tougher on these idiots who think that speed, cellphones while driving, and drinking is smart, funny, or clever.

If I were a judge I would impose a five-year driving ban on first offenders and a lifetime ban on repeat offenders with crippling fines.

We are not talking about silly games here, we are talking about people's lives. Some of them, children - who have little or no say in the way their parents behave.

The pussyfooting around by the courts has to stop, it is pointless having a police force that risks the lives of police officers to catch these idiots if the courts do no act tougher.

JIM ADAMS
Rotorua

What could you do in 2017 that the council wants to make illegal in 2018? Put up signs in front of your house or business expressing your political opinion.

Never mind that New Zealand's Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of expression. The council's proposed Plan Change 5 (PC5) about signs will cancel it.

Why? The PC5 Evaluation openly admits (p. 27) that "The temporary Rotorua [District] Residents and Ratepayers Association Signs displayed prior to the 2016 elections" were "not covered by the Electoral Act". So, the RDRR was right all along about the legality of their yellow signs.

How will PC5 cancel our freedom of expression using signs? By defining a political sign as a "Community Information Sign", as "site related when it relates to the primary activity of the site" and then ruling that non-site related signs and temporary signs are non-complying or a discretionary activity needing a resource consent.

Political comment using signs will be banned or need resource consent.

Why should the primary activity of a site be used to decide if political signs should be permitted? Political activity in democracies is legitimated by the sovereignty of citizens. Not by local government permission based on a non-democratic criterion.

We live in New Zealand, not in a fascist state. PC5 would usurp our political rights.

Citizens, the submission deadline is January 12, 2018. Resist PC5 or lose your right to comment using signs.

REYNOLD MACPHERSON
Rotorua