OVER TO YOU
Council conduct
The recent outburst by Nelson city councillor Mike Rutledge does him no credit.
As Steve Cross, spokesman of the Nelson Residents Association, says, in part, "the incident demonstrated the importance of openness and transparency in local government, so that all ratepayers can be satisfied that decisions are being made through rational and considered debate’’.
The outburst by Cr Rutledge reflects badly on all other councillors who strive to make Nelson a better place to live.
Nelson City Council is Nelson’s senior management team, and in my opinion there is no room for distractions and conflicts of interest so clearly demonstrated by Cr Rutledge. Nelson has an ageing population, and we need reassuring this behaviour does not repeat itself.
Mike Rodwell
Immediate past president, Nelson Residents Association Nelson, May 26
Save the grandstand
The Golden Bay Community Grandstand at the Takaka A&P showgrounds has survived two world wars and hundreds of shows and rugby matches, through rain, hail, snow and heaps of Golden Bay sun, giving freely shade and cover from the elements to generations of residents and visitors. Will it survive another 100 years?
I hope it does stay put, as there is huge community and New Zealand-wide support to leave it alone and arrange car parking around it, as planned by the GB Grandstand Trust.
So come on, TDC. You don’t need to be destroying a perfectly good community facility built by the Golden Bay community almost 120 years ago!
Karl Barkley Christchurch, May 23
Shaky grounds
Nelson MP Nick Smith gave us a ‘‘timely reminder that it is not a matter of if we get another major earthquake, but when’’ (Nelson Mail, May 26). This is the man who is tirelessly campaigning for Tasman District Council’s madcap scheme to build a dam immediately between two fault lines.
He goes on: ‘‘I want to ensure that when we have a major earthquake, we have a fully functional hospital. The residents of Brightwater, 20km downstream, would like to be sure we’ll have a fully functional school and village. John Nichols Brightwater, May 27
Royal wedding
A light-hearted sendup of a solemn occasion can be fun, but when Joe Bennett applied his ‘‘grim humour’’ to the royal wedding (Nelson Mail, May 26) it ceased to be funny, because cynicism is a killjoy that makes our world a miserable place.
Joe admitted that he was nearly convinced by the bishop’s sermon (which was about genuine love), but then plumbed the depths by saying: ‘‘It was almost as though he meant what he said!’’
He called the sermon ‘‘emotional’’, but the bishop was speaking not of emotion but of the kind of love that brings true happiness – the kind that ordinary people understand, the unselfish kind. But for Joe, the sermon was ‘‘intense, high-wattage religiosity’’.
Our greatest nightmare would be the victory of cynicism, creating a loveless world which would be a living death. A person who does not know that love is what saves us from misery has to live without joy. Patrick Cronin
Nelson, May 27
Gun club noise
Who moves next to a wellestablished shooting club and then expects it to be shut down – because it makes noise (Nelson Mail, May 30)? The resident in your non-story claims that the gunshots cause her ear pain. Really? Science tells us that as she is 600m away from their boundary, then the club could literally detonate 45kg of TNT and she still wouldn’t require hearing protection for safety. The ground vibration at that distance would also be less than 5mm/s velocity, so her home would be undamaged.
So to suggest that the sound of a few pistol shots, supposedly piercing dirt berms and thick trees, is akin to ‘‘living in a war zone’’ is just an insult to your readers.
As for the other deaf woman objecting to the noise – words fail me. This was fake news at its worst.
The arrogant entitlement of a woman moving to a rural setting and then expecting rural activities to be halted for her is the only real story here.
Mike Loder
Auckland, May 30