That the council would even consider spending up to $18 million in ratepayer's money on the Sir Howard Morrison Performing Arts Centre defies belief. The council has increased debt rather than decreased it as was promised and while spending $2 million to $3 million on earthquake strengthening the centre makes sense, why spend many more millions when survey results reported that no more people would make use of it in the next 12 months?
The "build it and they will come" theory is just that and if serious marketing efforts do not attract sufficient additional concerts to warrant spending another $15 million refurbishing the centre, then the answer is obvious - do not spend it!
The money used for earthquake strengthening should not be allowed to increase debt however, and the budgets from some other areas should be cut to provide the money for this work. This is no different from a household or business making the hard decision to forgo one thing to pay for something else, a lesson that this council needs to still learn.
PAUL CARPENTER
Rotorua
Jesus is missing
On the whiteboard of a Rotorua primary school I saw a mind-map of Christmas. There were about 30 things all pointing to Christmas: parties, presents, friends, koru, marae, food, fun; but not the name of Jesus. Why not, I wonder?
GJ PHILIP
Rotorua