Letters to the Editor

To the Editor

Whoa!!! Hold the phone. Give a champion a challenge then just step back and watch. Last month, the local population marvelled at the fact that NZTA (New Zealand Transport Agency) had excelled themselves by having the repaired potholes at the corner of Marlin Street lasting just over two months. We all thought that record couldn’t possibly be broken in our lifetime. But what do we know?  The corner has begun to break up again just in time for Christmas. A new record!! The new pothole is getting deeper and wider by the day and chances are by the time it gets repaired it could have its own area code. 

However, the lonely figure of the man with the wheelbarrow remains on stand by. He is like a coiled spring just waiting for the nod that will probably never come.

I acknowledge that ineptitude is wide ranging and is even seen in the private sector but it almost impossible to beat government sponsored incompetence.

Although….there has been a late challenge for the “Incompetence Cup”. There is a hint of what might be a winning entry. After a week of heavy, constant rain, TCDC has issued a water restriction warning. Yep, after a year of spending millions installing water metres and completely ignoring their historic water storage problem, they just might not have anything to measure after the holiday period. Monty Python would be proud.  

Wayne Hill,

PS. The Informer visited the pothole in question over Christmas and found it to be recently re- repaired. Although bumpy and even undulating, it was no longer a pothole.

Dear Editor,

Good morning Pauline, or at least it was until I read this latest update on the proposed spat farm in Mercury Bay, just received. It is incomprehensible that this proposal should be considered in any way shape or form. This is all about money and greed - with no serious thought about the long-term pollution and the inevitably negative effect this would have on our outstandingly successful Marine Reserve.  The tides and currents are not selective where they take our human-made pollution and with just a few kilometres separating the two we stand to destroy an internationally recognised icon of not just Mercury Bay, but New Zealand. We are all aware that this is just a “back door entry” to mussel farming in the pristine waters of Mercury Bay. Spat farming is now very successfully underway in land based non polluting environments.There is absolutely no need or reason for a Spat Farm in Mercury Bay.There is no scientific research to show that spat is available for harvest in Mercury Bay. The set up for a spat farm is very similar to a mussel farm and when the spat farm fails, the waters will then have be re-classified as ‘Grey’, making it legally open to mussel farming.  DO WE WANT TO GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS THE GENERATION WHO DESTROYED THE PRISTINE MERCURY BAY MARINE ENVIRONMENT FOR ALL TIME - JUST FOR A HANDFUL OF PEOPLE TO MAKE A FORTUNE.

Please see page seventeen for the details of the Spratt Farm issue presented by the Save Mercury Bay Trust.