Your views: Readers' letters

Ponding areas

If the stopbanks are raised 1.5 metres in Anzac Parade what will be the effects on Taupo Quay?

What is needed are more ponding areas; below Cobham Bridge would be a good start. Dredge sufficient area, enough depth -- this would be a lot cheaper than stopbanks, payable only by those properties that get flooded, not the whole district.

People need to be responsible for their actions. They bought properties in areas that flood, they should stand the consequences and not expect to be subsidised by others.

M NORRIS
St John's Hill

Fond memories

Reading the twaddle about renovating in France caused me a solid hour of fond remembrance of the best five years this century -- living, working and playing in the Haute Savoie (Alps) around Samoens, in a chantier (gang?) renovating, maintaining and transforming aged stone marvels for a pompous patron, M Manoury.

We delivered really well executed improvements to 200-year-old buildings on time, on budget, and with nary a piece of chipboard to be seen. Rafters were properly replaced from the local mills, 40x25cm beams taken from the same forest the original timber came from, and cut to fit with clever hand bandsaws by talented young builders who'd take me out for a ski amongst their local forests at the drop of a hat.

The cafes and boulangeries of Samoens were a joy. Were my pension able to be delivered to that locale, I'd be off like a shot.

(Abridged)

JOHN RIDING
Whangaehu