RIPPED OFF
Council to me is a sore point. We pay loads more than most of New Zealand up north, and this is so unfair.
We get no more than other ratepayers in NZ, and our roads are the worst in the country.
We have our own power generating plant, but our power costs are higher than most places in NZ.
As a resident of Kaikohe, I believe we are being ripped off. Local voters feel as I do.
They are simply over it all and angry. Democracy is both a privilege and a responsibility.
Democracy means a fair system. Ours is not in many ways. Get the system right and you may see a change in voters’ enthusiasm.
Our mayor and local council are the people in the know about problems within our societies in the north.
The assaults, the robberies, the willful damages at the small hours of the morning, mostly by children of school age.
I have been one of the many victims in Kaikohe by having car windows smashed, and once again I find the police are powerless.
Ministers all have homes in wealthy and safer parts of their chosen regions, and can afford to make their homes into a beautiful fortress.
In fact I am sure that sometimes I hear them chuckling about our problems in the wind, not long after complimenting a colleagues golf shot.
None of what I read in the handout with the new candidates for the latest voting, said anything about wanting to try to do something about our troubled little towns.
Something however has to be done. I have made a lot of noise. But it falls on deaf ears. We need a channel. A mayor and council who care.
Stu Bryers
Kaikohe
GOOD MOVE
We quit Auckland City 41 years ago for the Kerikeri District. ‘‘You will be sorry!’’ family and friends warned.
Best move we ever made. We watched Kerikeri grow and develop. Mistakes were made like poor planning for such things as traffic flow and sewerage.
Several of us were almost cast into outer darkness for suggesting the Helen Clark offer of a dollar for dollar subsidy for a reticulated sewerage scheme be taken up.
The sort of problems most growing rural towns have to solve somehow. As I write the sun shines on a beautiful spring day
SAFETY FIRST
Lovely front page photo in last weeks Bay Chronicle. It was good to see them wearing life jackets too. Too many people die on the water each year because they do not wear life jackets.
Doesn’t it make good sense to wear one? One should never underestimate nature. Let’s not be arrogant and macho and think we know best because the weather and sea conditions can change in an instant.
So wear a life jacket.
If you get into trouble out at sea, who is going to save your butt? The Coastguard services. They risk their lives to save you. Chris Baker
Kerikeri
HAVE YOUR SAY
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