Whanganui District Council: Congratulations are in order, says Dave Hill.
Accountability at last
Congratulations to the Whanganui District Council and CEO Kym Fell for the announcement that Whanganui and Partners now have a set of quantifiable and measurable goals to achieve over the next few years.
They are average GDP growth of 2.5 per cent by 2020, population increase of 4500 by 2025 and a 5 per cent increase in employment.
That's quantifiable, measurable and it will not be easy, but it is achievable.
Over the last two terms of the previous council ratepayers have contributed millions of dollars into Whanganui and Partners and its former sub groups of Visit Whanganui, Business Whanganui and Education Whanganui with no apparent accountability and arguably very little gain for the city and district.
Our tourism guest night figures are still pretty much at the figures of 10 years ago.
In business, we have had some successes and some losses, and in education we have falling school rolls.
Now we have a slimmed-down Whanganui and Partners with paid board members who should and must be held accountable for the expected growth we all desire.
When I stood as a council candidate at the last election, I was one of the very few who were openly critical of Whanganui and Partners performance or, as I saw it, non-performance.
So I'm surprised, impressed and overjoyed that finally we are getting some accountability.
Now I'm chairman of the Wanganui Ratepayers' Association, I know our organisation will also be happy with this announcement, as our objectives are also ensuring ratepayers achieve the best performance possible from our council.
DAVE HILL
Whanganui
Difficult decision
We who claim to be Christian can rejoice that the reported number of abortions conducted last year is down from an annual peak of 18,000 to 12,000.
At the same time, we lament the fact that even one human life was aborted, let alone 12,000.
We Christians have gone soft on standing up for what is right, and exposing what is, in Christian terms, a sin.
"Thou shalt not kill" remains a commandment our society and we, as individuals, forget at our peril.
It can become a slippery slope to getting rid of other human life simply because that life is perceived as valueless.
As a person whose mother was found to be pregnant and unmarried aged 40 in 1943, I am eternally grateful to her that she carried me (and later my brother) full-term. I think her sacrifice was worth it.
Of course, she was a devoted Christian to the end of her days.
It must be a very distressing for the women or teenage girls who have to make these decisions.
Those of us who care need to find ways to help them through this time in their lives and save these babies.
DAVID BENNETT
Whanganui
George and Chas
I had a genuine smile of respect when reading the obituary for the late George Tyler, former town clerk ("City reaping rewards of George Tyler's work", Chronicle, June 17). The quote in the article from former mayor the late Chas Poynter, cited as saying that Mr Tyler was "the one member of staff I've been able to see eye-to-eye with", was what brought my smile.
To my mind, that was evidence of a genuine good humour between those two worthy gentlemen, for both of them were similarly, shall we say, "vertically challenged" and indeed there were not many council personnel who would have been able to literally see "eye-to-eye" with either of them.
I wonder if obituary writer Zaryd Wilson was aware of the subtle yet good humour between those gentlemen in that quote?
Both men were fine, hard-working assets to the city.
George Tyler I met decades ago when he, while still in his day job of town clerk, ran a public speaking course in the evenings for the general public at the (now) City College.
Chas Poynter and I met socially, and we went through ... er, a "bit of a rough patch" in his early months as mayor, but we quickly reconciled any small, doubtless imagined, differences of policy so well that I gave him some public support and he put me on his mayoral Christmas card list, which I was rather proud of and "made" every guest to my home read the card.
STAN HOOD
Aramoho
Barclay must go
With fewer than 100 days until the general election, voter attention turns to the various candidates across the political spectrum who are vying for legislative representation.
A fundamental voter consideration for supporting a candidate is the answer to the question "can we trust the candidate?".
For Clutha/Southland MP Todd Barclay, given the recent revelations about his surreptitious use of a dictaphone with a staff member, the answer to this question is an emphatic "no".
The wet stain of Barclay's actions is now bleeding all over the integrity of the National Party, and the only way to staunch the wound is to cauterise the cause.
Todd Barclay can either step down from his role or he can be pushed. Either way, he needs to go.
DYLAN TIPENE
Ranui, Auckland