Easy access needed
Planner Hamish Lampp says Wanganui's housing needs will be met by building in the Springvale-St John's areas.
My own and many friends' housing needs will be met when we have apartments within walking distance of town: we are mature people who enjoy the riverside walks, the shops and cafes, cinema and theatre, and those amenities are all at the river end of town.
We want easy-care properties we can lock and leave (for when we travel after winning Bonus Bonds), and we certainly don't want a huge kitchen and two bathrooms to clean, as so many new houses have.
Those relocating to Wanganui might be happy with a 10-minute drive into town but, with our great climate, walking or cycling is surely the better way.
ANGELA STRATTON
Durie Hill
Assad has to go
Just now there is something pretty cock-eyed going on with the war in Syria.
The guy who is part of the problem is insisting that he should be part of the solution. No way.
There should be a call for Russia's Vladimir Putin to butt out. However, the person to whom we look for leadership is mentally unable to grasp such a concept, insisting both Putin and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad should stay, saying the same about that dictator in Venezuela.
These few weeks are probably the best chance in years for the issue of Syrians being able to decide their own future.
With Assad gone, Putin would lose his first lieutenant and convenient access to the Mediterranean, and the world can then start on the almost impossible task of redressing many wrongs. With Assad gone, who really wants to carry on fighting?
How to remove him? Use him against himself.
Recently Al Jazeera showed some appalling pictures, secretly taken within Assad's torture cells — forgotten inmates with emaciation equal to any found in Belsen. Starvation is his favourite torture — one feels sick just watching.
These could be published worldwide, and he has long qualified for being classified as guilty of crimes against humanity, too numerous to mention here. Is there not one leader of today prepared to get him into the dock for trial? It may take some of the best legal brains we have, worldwide. It may not be easy, but surely not impossible.
R HOYTE
Gonville
Sanity on rates required
Having paid the district douncil $2791.53 rates bill after a $630 rebate and now $343.49 to Horizons, totalling $3135.02 I read councillors are
to receive a rise of 3.4 per cent and the Mayor 9.7 per cent. I realise these are set in Wellington, but surely it is time that he who pays the piper gets to call the tune. My rates in a new home in 1955 were approximately $30 and that included a rubbish collection.
Hopefully our MP will take the case to Parliament before we get rated out of our homes. Somehow, sanity should prevail before we reach the stage that people can't afford to buy a house because they can't afford a mortgage and a continually rising rates bill.
P.SMITH
Whanganui
Good CEO solid gold
How much is a CEO worth? A good CEO is certainly worth his weight in gold. He (or she) is worth the remuneration of several councillors. We could manage with less councillors but not without a CEO.
The CEO is the one person overseeing and responsible for all staff and staffing issues, A CEO must inspire, cajole, have his finger on everything going on in the council and be able to lead by example.
He must be beyond pettiness and sectional politics. He, more than any other person, works for us, the ratepayer. He requires a strong knowledge of local body law and the intestinal fortitude to stand up to the council when he sees it as his duty to do so.
JEAN MCDAVITT
Whanganui
Families ease burden
Re: Chronicle stories about being unable to get a rates rebate: I am also a superannuitant and am living in a town house which my son has provided. I owned a very modest home, but after my husband's death it was decided to sell the family home, as it needed a lot of maintenance I could not afford.
So 11 years ago the house was sold, and in those days prices were very low, so not much profit was made.
Since then I have always paid rates and also house insurance, and I also received rate rebates until three years ago, which was a big help.
I think the Whanganui council should be very grateful to family members who provide homes for their parents and take the burden off the council to provide homes for the elderly.
H CODLIN
Whanganui
Send your letters to: The Editor, Whanganui Chronicle, 100 Guyton St, PO Box 433, Wanganui 4500; or email editor@wanganuichronicle.co.nz
