Paraparaumu now has the Kapiti Expressway. Te Puke, the Tauranga Eastern Link. Cambridge, the Waikato Expressway. Taupo, the Taupo Expressway. Rotorua doesn't need an Arterial Link or Expressway because it has Te Ngae Rd. Nice going Rotorua District Council and the NZTA.
JOHN MACRAE
Rotorua
John Pakes' response (Letters February 24) to Rosemary McKenzie's evidence-based interpretation of the election outcomes (Letters February 22) simply repeated his opinions, ignored the swings, tried to split RDRR's candidates, and alleged "negativity" to deny RDRR respect as a "key stakeholder". The headline advised that the "Beaten RDRR Should Move On".
The RDRR has "moved on". It concluded that in its view the mayor split the community to scrape back into power, helped by two vote splitters. It decided to continue with vigorous representation through to 1919. RDRR's memberships have grown steadily since.
It has "moved on" with campaigns for serious debt reduction, noise abatement, core services, ending cronyism and conflicts of interest, limiting rates rises to the cost of living, social housing for the elderly, proportionate powers to the three policy advisory boards, a new arterial roads policy, scrapping portfolios and wasteful projects, and so on.
More recently it has rejected the mayor's proposal to head up a new district bureaucracy on the, in our view, cynical promise that they will "eradicate entrenched intergenerational poverty". It asked council to refresh their policies and compliance around short-term rentals to control the behaviours of some rogue tenants and owners. It will make a submission to the Lake Rotorua Nutrient Management Hearings. And so on.
Stakeholders are those who can affect or be affected by council's actions, objectives and policies. That's why residents and ratepayers who live here and fund council demand to be respected as "key stakeholders".
GLENYS SEARANCKE
Rotorua
