Letters to the Editor
Hide your rubbish
I’m a Hamilton resident who very much enjoys weekly visits to Cambridge and regards your small town as surely one of the prettiest destinations in New Zealand, save one aspect – the sight of commercial rubbish bins in full public view in the town centre.
I’m thinking Alpha St near the Onyx restaurant, in particular. Can business operators not be persuaded to find some other way of storing unwanted material for collection? Seems to me the otherwise aesthetic appeal of this dining precinct is diminished by leaving unsightly bins right where customers can see them.
Pitt Ramsay
Hamilton
Alpha St rubbish
Alarming call
Following on from Alan Hayward’s letter, Expressway access (The News, August 28) the issue of congestion will now be further exacerbated by the recent consent of the sand quarry at 77 Newcombe Rd. As previously noted, heavy transport movements will seriously affect congestion through an already struggling road system throughout Cambridge CBD and environs. Visions of fully laden truck and trailers potentially having to stop halfway up Carter’s Flat Hill due to congestion backed up from Victoria St roundabout should be ringing serious alarm bells.
The Government and NZTA would be well advised to review the decision not to allow a northbound on ramp to the expressway from this quarry, 25 years is a long time.
David Johnston
Cambridge
Penny pinching
Letters to Editor. Photo: Pixabay
A few years ago we were told we would have to pay separate rates for water usage and the less we used would mean we would pay less rates. What a joke. We are a couple of pensioners who use far less water than most families but still have to pay approximately $350 a year on top of our rates.
We have had to cut back as have many other people especially young families – I don’t know how they manage. A 15 per cent increase in rates is pinching money from ratepayers. I and lots of other people, I am sure, are going to make sure anyone who wants to be on council had better do better than the existing ones. The ones on council at the moment must think we can print money just like they can.
(Abridged)
Brian Pitchford.
Te Awamutu
Alcohol laws
I am writing in response to Senior Constable Deb Hann’s On the Beat (The News August 28) and in light of the government’s decision to loosen alcohol laws.
Deb Hann couldn’t be more clear when she points out that police are the ones who see the heartbreak that follows alcohol fuelled crashes. “We all have a role to play in keeping our roads safe,” says Deb. I agree, and I’d go further to say we all have a role to play in minimising alcohol harm.
The government’s decision to loosen alcohol laws is a shameful betrayal of New Zealanders. As someone who gave an oral submission on alcohol harm, sharing the devastation it has caused in my own family, I am appalled to see once again that the alcohol lobby’s voice has been valued above the voices of ordinary people.
Alcohol
Associate Minister of Justice Nicole McKee says “most people who drink do not have a problem with it’”. That is misleading. The reality is clear: one in six adults drink hazardously, 17.5 per cent binge drink monthly, and 72 per cent of the harm comes not from “alcoholics,” but from so-called normal drinking. Alcohol causes 900 deaths, 1250 cancers, 30,000 hospitalisations, and costs New Zealand $9.1 billion every year.
Yes, I welcome one announced change — banning delivery to intoxicated people — because it was something I personally asked for. But in the face of this enormous harm, it is nothing more than a token gesture.
Alcohol is our most harmful drug. By loosening the law, this government has chosen industry profits over people’s lives. That is not leadership. It is cowardice.
Louise Allen
Cambridge
