Blue blob
Work being undertaken on Cambridge Connections cycleway at lower Alpha Street – the site of the now discounted Blue Blob river location. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
I see in The News (July 3) that Waipā District Council had a workshop on the fallout from the Cambridge blue blob. Independent facilitator Anne Pattillo identified three failures that contributed to the chaos of the drop-in session: lack of connection by the Project Steering Group with the wider Council, the performance and actions of elected membered, and poor community engagement that failed to build understanding and commitment. Well it sounds to me that Pattillo thinks that better co-ordination with in council and better public relations should have been used to con the residents into accepting the unacceptable plan drawn up by the council’s Manager Transportation, Bryan Hudson, and his team. The real issue was and is, councillors were/are not talking to and listening to residents, then taking their view on board, and staff are not interested in just what residents actually want but, rather, driving their own ideas even when there are better alternatives.
Geoff Boxell
Kihikihi
Rate take
Rates on the up
It is surprising that with all that money spent on spin ($800,000 for 9.5 full time “consultants”, The News June 12 – over $110k annually per person) council do not divulge where the money is proposed to be spent. More staff? Road cones? Cycle ways? What provider would bill you without giving details about what you were paying for?
Inflation is running at about 2.5 per cent pa (CPI Reserve bank website). Proposed rates increases of 57 per cent over four years are high enough to ask valid questions such as where is the extra going. Glossy docs in our mailbox ask us to “have our say” but that is unlikely if we are kept in the dark regarding where the money is spent. Clever spin indeed.
Martin Lawrence
Cambridge
Vape debate
Single use vapes cost as much to dispose of as they do to buy. Photo: Students Against Vaping.
Why there is a need for three shops in Leamington, within a few hundred metres of each other, to be selling vape products? One is too many.
Jim Otway
Leamington
Rate Inflation
How high can rates go? Photo: RDNE Stock, Pexels.com
I am interested in all the letters in the Cambridge News regards the 15 per cent plus rates rise. While the present Waipā District Council has been irresponsible for over spending not all the blame can be sheeted home to them.
Our previous mayor and his councillors were involved in overruns. Just one to mind was the swimming pool overrun of $8 million. If council staff, councillors and consultants can’t get costing closer than this, heaven help us. I can remember well the previous mayor making a statement saying that if we paid the above inflation rate that year, we could look forward to increases below inflation rates thereafter. Hopefully we will have a massive clean out from top to bottom of councillors this election.
Bill Woolston
Cambridge
