Letters: Voting makes the difference

People gather in the Rotorua Lakes Council Chamber to hear the outcome of the Te Arawa Partnership vote. PHOTO/FILE

Yes, as John Pakes said (Letters, October 14), there will be two community boards advising council, but it is in an advisory capacity only.

Therein lies the difference between them and the unelected Te Arawa members who sit on, and can vote on, the two most important council committees.

[Abridged]
PADDI HODGKISS
Rotorua

I reply to John Pakes (Letters, October 14) that "the RDRR has campaigned for more than a year, and in my view failed."

The campaign actually achieved solid advances. I was up 26% on my 2013 votes for councillor to being 2863 votes short of becoming mayor. Peter Bentley held his numbers to jump from 8th to 2nd rank on the new 10-person council. Raj Kumar leapt to 7th place. Ex-councillor Julie Calnan came 12th with a -13% swing. Shelly Riach-Fischer, John Dyer, and Rosemary MacKenzie took 15th, 17th and 18th places respectively at first try with between 4867 and 4963 votes each.

In my view the campaign savaged the leaders of the current regime. The mayor suffered a -23% swing. Charles Sturt was the lead loser with a -30% swing, plummeting from 3rd to 9th. Committee chair Karen Hunt polled second worst with a -28% swing, falling from 7th to 10th. Another committee chair, Janet Wepa, fell from 10th spot off council with a -26% swing. The other committee chair, Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, had a -25% swing, with deputy mayor Dave Donaldson and Trevor Maxwell each down -23% and -22%, all falling in rank.

The RDRR campaign, in my view, can take substantial credit for this backlash. In contrast, Te Arawa endorsement did no favours to anyone. Co-governance remains electoral poison, in my opinion.

REYNOLD MACPHERSON
Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayers

I think those wheelie bins are a good idea for our waste/recycling but he who designed them did not put too much thought into who was going to be using the things.

He got it arse-about-face!

You consider little old ladies and even a few of the frail old men who are not as strong as they were when they were 19, having to put these things into position where they want them.

Now, if you walk up to these things to grab the handle, you'll see the lid opens from the other end. Very handy.

So to be able to get into the thing you have to turn it around and winkle it back into position so you can open the lid.

Okay so you can do that with your eyes closed but what about that little old great grandma?

That's all very well to say they'll manage, but what about getting it out again when it's not empty?

The handle is at the other end, against the wall (in all probability) and the person going to shift it has to get it to turn around so they can get hold of the handle with both hands to safely wheel the thing out for collection.

Positioning it by the road is easy so that's no problem.

Even if the lid was reversed and the handle re-positioned the rubbish wouldn't care which way it fell into the truck.

Never mind, it is how it is and we'll hope no little, frail oldies have to have an ACC claim.

ROD PETTERSON
Rotorua