There seems to be a growing concern amongst residents of our Rotorua District (both urban and rural) about the amount of maintenance that is required to be done. We are hearing from council that there are no funds available or in some cases, as I can attest, the only response has been a computer generated message to say you will be contacted in so many days' time, and weeks later no response.
It's all very well having these feel-good projects like the Lakefront or statues no one can make, or international airport that is a white elephant.
These sorts of callous items of expenditure just eat up the money required to maintain what we already have - for example, drains, footpaths, roadsides, parks and buildings etc. These aren't sexy items but important nevertheless.
This council is no different to previous councils. It would pay for the councillors and the managers to get out from behind their desks and go and take a good look at what needs to be done to bring our district up to scratch and stop dreaming up ideas that are a waste of time and money that we can ill-afford.
Remember folks, we pay the ferryman at the end of the day.
DEREK PACKHAM
Rotorua
Motherhood nonsense
I found the column on motherhood by Lizzie Marvelly (Rotorua Daily Post March 24) extremely well written, until she introduced Clarke Gayford, partner of our Prime Minister, becoming a stay-at-home dad.
Let's be a bit realistic about this situation. His partner, Jacinda, has a weekly salary of $9000 plus tax-free expenses of possibly an equal amount, and use of a chauffeur driven car. Is Lizzie saying that Clarke will be like a normal partner struggling to cope? I would have gladly been a stay-at-home father if my wife had been earning $9000 a week. And all the fuss about Jacinda as though she was a normal working mum! As though she couldn't afford a housekeeper/nanny. We never had this luxury for our baby. So let's stop all this nonsense about two people struggling with the normal problems of having a baby. There will be none.
