Letters to the Editor
Admission fees
My wife and I regularly attend rowing regattas at Lake Karapiro and always have paid a spectator fee on entry. We note (Cambridge News, January 16) free entry was provided to all spectators attending the Waka Ama National Sprint Championships over the six day duration.
Can we expect the same generosity for those spectators attending this year’s Maadi Cup from March 22 to 30?
A.J. Rillstone
Cambridge
Letters to Editor. Photo: Pixabay
More on productivity
Peter Nicholl’s excellent article, It’s about productivity, (The News, January 16) brought to my mind something I witnessed on January 10. I was sitting having a cup of tea outside the bakery opposite the dentist in Shakespeare Ave about 8.30am, as I waited for my car at the upholsterer’s.
Two late model Waipā District Council mini tip trucks were parked at the complex containing the dentists. The driver of one was casually blowing leaves towards the garden which they had presumably come from. The female driver of the other watched on, and twice went to her truck’s rear vision mirror to check her hair. A chap in a late model council ute was there briefly, left and came back for a short time before driving off again. Supervisor?
The leaves were blown back into the garden, and both trucks drove off. The cost of vehicles I saw ($100,000 plus?) non-productive staff wages, their annual and statutory holiday pay, ACC levies, Superfund contributions…all to shift back (not remove) some leaves. A pointless exercise paid for by the ratepayers.
I have lived in Waipa district (Whitehall) only two years, and I was astounded to realise that the council still employed “works” staff instead of opening this type of work (rubbish collection, mowing, gardening) up to competition from private contractors who would operate with a cheap ute and dispose of the material collected.
Local Bodies doing this uncontested work with expensive machinery will always be inefficient and wasteful, because they have no competition.
Has our new chief executive released any plan for reviewing the activities of the Waipa District Council? Cutting out $40,000 promotional activities best left to private enterprise would be a good idea too.
Peter Clapham
Whitehall
