Letters: Support for the Sarjeant and velodrome

The Sarjeant is a Whanganui icon for all ages, writes Carol Webb. Photo / Tracey Grant

Not just a sports issue

I write in support of the business case for the velodrome project, criticised by a sports economist in the Chronicle's August 10 edition and called "seriously flawed" by David Bennett in a newspaper advertisement.

The business case's author, Martin Visser, an honours management graduate, has 40 years' experience working with Carter Holt Harvey, strategic planner for American Express and Fletcher Challenge, co-ordinator of BNZ's three-year planning process, cost-benefit analyst, investment adviser, ex-Whanganui district councillor, small business consultant and consultant to councils.

Martin prepared the business cases for the proposed Marton rail hub which resulted in Rangitīkei receiving $9.1 million in Government funding (Chronicle, August 19) and for the approved new Rangitīkei industrial zone (Chronicle, August 21).

Given his credible support for these successful projects, it's exciting to have his expertise behind the Whanganui District Council's application for a grant of $26.3m.

The methodology used for these business cases follows proven economic principles. The projections for the velodrome are based upon interviewing current and potential end-user groups backed up by independent consumer research.

The Regional Velodrome Trust has been told repeatedly that if it wants to attract funding, the stadium needs to be multi-purpose.

Globally, new facilities are designed to allow multi-purpose use; existing single-use facilities are being re-purposed. It makes sense – spreading the risk and possible revenue sources.

Seven regional mayors agree.

This is not just a sports issue, but an economic development - one which Whanganui should pursue post-Covid.

Martin's work arrives at similar conclusions to an earlier assessment of economic impact and visitor activity commissioned from an independent consultant. [Abridged]

Bob Smith
Regional Velodrome Development Trust, Whanganui

The Ten Commandments

So good to see balanced journalism in the Chronicle today (August 24): Rob Rattenbury on his views of assisted suicide, and John Newton reminding us where the laws Rob defended as a policeman came from, those Ten Commandments, the basis for lawmaking for the last 4000 years, Jews, then Christians. It is only in the last 100 years those 10 laws have been seriously attacked.

Does Rob imagine the laws of the land came from a democratic selection over the millennia? Those laws of the country came from an authority...

Our ex-policeman has sided with those who say [assisted] suicide is quite all right. Is this message he wishes to leave with his children and grandchildren?

Humanity never ceases to surprise me how they can live with contradiction. For example, Biden and Pelosi in the American news, both in public office stating their Catholicism while supporting full term abortion.

I suspect, like a few politicians, there is a disordered streak for control over those around them.

For all that, Rob is out of order. That authority referred to, exists by the witness of Jews and Christians today. That authority also exists in the work of Aristotle, if he has the courage to read it. The Greeks are the ones who came up with the uncreated, the unborn, the first cause, just by using their reason like good scientists. [Abridged]

FR Halpin
Whanganui

An icon for all ages

Letter writer Garth Scown's recent pot-shot at the Sarjeant Gallery, saying "It's basically for the oldies", ignores our district's vibrant art scene, of which the Sarjeant has long been a vital component.

He probably has no idea of the generations who have come to work or study at UCOL and who have remained here, taking our resident artists to 400-plus. However, Scown defines "oldies", he'd struggle to find more than a few.

He might visit some of the 100-plus young artists who make the annual Open Studios event such a drawcard for visitors or view their entries in the Sarjeant's Annual Review. He could pop into the Sarjeant on the Quay or its i-SITE branch and experience the energy brought to every artwork by its creator and by the enthusiastic young gallery staff. He's likely to encounter visitors from around NZ and overseas in thrall to the exhibits and on weekdays there'll probably be excited young school groups learning about and making art under the tutelage of specialist staff.

Even the iconic Sarjeant on the hill was designed more than a century ago by 21-year-old trainee architect Donald Hosie before he went off to die amid the horrors of Passchendaele in World War I, the shell that hit him leaving behind no body to bury. Like so many of his generation remembered each Anzac Day, he never grew old. But now we salute a new crop of tradies with jobs working to restore, earthquake-proof and enlarge our grand old girl on the hill, giving new life to the long-ago vision of that young architect.

Carol Webb
Whanganui

The 'right' opinions

Paul Baber (Letters, August 25) claims, without offering any evidence, that US President Donald Trump has "empowered, given leverage and sanction" to "the proliferation of voices of bigotry, racism and misogyny" ...

There are examples like the Charlottesville controversy. Protesters, including white supremacist thugs, gathered to protest against the removal of a historic statue. Protesters, including Antifa thugs, gathered to protest the other protesters and for the removal of the statue. In the fighting that followed, a white supremacist drove a car into some of the second group and killed a woman. The President decried the killing, denounced the white supremacists roundly along with the Antifa, and pointed out that there were also good people there on both sides peacefully protesting for what they believed. So, many of the media left out the clear denouncing of white supremacists and said the President had called white supremacists "good people".

The list of examples is endless.

Perhaps most interesting in Mr Baber's letter is his idea that "freedom of speech" is some sort of protective shield only hateful people use so they can "assault" people with "racist, misogynist and bigoted statements".

Mr Baber wants to restrict free speech that might hurt someone's feelings because that is "oppression", not recognising that freedom of speech is one of the most important freedoms and rights we have, next to the right to life since you can't say anything if someone has taken away your life.

The idea that we can take away other's freedom of speech, because we don't like their views or what they say, is the short step to totalitarianism. Will you be one of the few with always the "right" opinions, or will you too find yourself silenced along the way? [Abridged]

KA Benfell
Gonville