Letters: Time to trial new weather station location

A reader suggests Rotorua retry moving its weather station. Photo / Getty Images

Viv Radley's proposal to have our city's temperatures read from a location other than the airport is an excellent one.

However, I went through this very same exercise several years ago, working also with Niwa and the Rotorua Lakes Council.

Eventually it was agreed to set up an official thermometer screen in the grounds of a local high school where senior students could take the daily readings and forward them to TVNZ to be shown that evening.

Unfortunately as the weeks went by, this failed to be done and we lost our opportunity to show Rotorua's temperatures as they actually are.

Manning such an operation is the main problem, but maybe this time around it could be made to work. Like Ms Radley, I'm all for it.
Brian Holden
Springfield Weather Observations

I fully support naming the library after Aunty Bea Yates. She was an author herself and a woman who did so much for the community, with particular emphasis on education and health - Two key focus points of our new library, what a great suggestion!
John Turi-Tiakitai
Rotorua

I was at the Lakefront this week and took the opportunity to have a good walk around.

I quickly formed the conclusion that the council over the years has not done a great deal of maintenance; of course I am aware that storm damage gets attended to, but regular maintenance, I don't think so.

A good tidy up would go a long way to making the area attractive to locals and tourists alike.

The old Soundshell building does need to go. The building cannot be used like the outdoor stage it once was. Those days of the family events and local entertainers are well over for that building.

The children's playground was getting well used. It was great to see kids using all the equipment.

But I don't believe the area needs nearly $40 million spent to redevelop it. Just maintain it and look after what is there.

Sadly the state of the lake water is an issue. I hope it can be cleaned up but how is the question!
Derek Packham
Lake Tarawera