Sad sight at Plimmerton

to prevent this nuisance and danger other than putting up signage forbidding the practice?

The park is vested in the council and it has a responsibility for people to remain safe when using it.

My experience of informing the council of trailbike users was to be told to call the police. How’s that for lack of interest? Is it forgetting whose park it is?

When will the council take some affirmative action in preventing motorbikes from actually gaining access to the park trails?

Some strategically placed zigzag metal barriers at various narrow places that allow push chairs underneath and people to easily negotiate would hopefully persuade these thoughtless trailbike individuals that they are unwelcome.

The council says that the park ‘‘is a special place and we want to keep it that way’’. I say to the council: do something positive about it and stop pussyfooting around the problem.

Market has displayed the features of a free market, with buyers and sellers meeting and trading. Many produce growers from the Levin/ Otaki area have offered truckloads of great-quality fresh vegetables and fruit at very fair prices. Also fresh fish, baked goods, flowers, art and crafts, etc.

We have seen masses of kebabs, fritters, wraps, and other foods cooked as we watch and we have enjoyed music from a variety of musicians and from Pacific recordings.

Some new stalls have succeeded and others have failed. Some have come and gone, their merchandise seasonal or opportunistic.

Such is the way that market forces work.

Recently Porirua City Council has intervened.

Some council officers have decided that the market lacks ‘‘vibrancy and excitement’’, and needs more rules: traceability, organic food, 50 per cent of stands with fresh vegetables, weekly reports to council by every Wednesday on performance against key goals etc.

The council’s negotiations with the long-standing and experienced Lions club operators went nowhere.

So now the Lions have relocated the market to Waitangirua, where it has a lot of support from buyers and sellers.

It is already showing that it is a bit different to the Cobham Court market.

There are new stalls that will succeed and old ones that will not stay as their offerings do not suit the changed marketplace.

Through the transition it is still the Lions club, with hard-working volunteers collecting money that will be distributed to charities throughout the area, as has been happening in Porirua for many years.

What next? There is a single tender for a new Cobham Court market on the council table.

My fear is that the council officers who are attempting to manipulate our Saturday Market will alter their draft terms to get a deal. Will the ratepayers take on some costs of operation, such as traffic management?

In the event that the new operator fails to meet the stringent rules, what then? Will it become a 100 per cent councilfunded and managed event? I suggest few ratepayers will willingly contribute to support this council ‘‘vision’’. Note that the review process has resulted in no Saturday Market in Porirua City Centre and will have already consumed thousands of ratepayers’ dollars. I recently walked along the seafront promenade at Plimmerton.

I was saddened by the decrepit state of the seafront balustrade wall, with its broken and crumbling concrete, exposed rusting reinforcing steel and general rundown air of neglect and decay.

This, in one of the country’s highest ratepaying communities. And then, the dog faeces – it seemed as if every 50 metres there were dog deposits in various stages of ‘‘maturity’’ smeared on the footpath from skateboards, bikes, shoes etc. Truly disgusting.

Then I walked down Steyne Ave to the shops and there were at least four dog deposits on the footpath, one swarming with flies. Unbelievably gross.

In recent travels in central Asia, Jordan, Nepal and Rarotonga, I did not see such mediaeval filth on public promenades. Why here?

C’mon, you dog owners, get your act together. You’re creating an unpleasant Third World vibe on our footpaths.

Keep your dogs at home and let them perform their ablutions in your own yard or residential street, not on a community promenade and village centre.

Cleaning up after the event with a dog poo bag must be some sort of a urban myth, because it’s obviously not practised by many.