Blame the RMA for the price of vegetables

YOUR contributor Anna Campbell (ODT, 2.5.18) laments the loss of land suitable for vegetable production, particularly in the South. She admits to not having the answers — however, the reasons provide some insight into the mess we are in.

In times gone by, the protection of land with high value for food production was under the then Town and Country Planning Act 1977 as a ‘‘matter of national importance’’, which had to be recognised and provided for in planning documents and in the landuse consent process.

That all changed in 1991 when the Resource Management Act replaced the 1977 Act and relevantly discarded the above provision and substituted some weasel words about protection of the natural and physical resources.

This followed the neoliberal approach current at that time, that the ‘‘mighty market’’ should govern the distribution and use of resources.

So the National Party and its friends got their way. Their friends bought and subdivided the land and the price of vegetables is moving ever upward once again, to the particular detriment of those least able to afford them.

It may take a headline like ‘‘This week’s special — cauliflower canned in the Caucasus’’ to help us wake up to the bind we have created for ourselves. Evan Alty Lake Hawea

Poor state of roads

WE write to endorse the comments of Grant Enright (ODT, 10.5.18). We are also concerned about the poor maintenance of our roads and the ineffective temporary repairing of the road surfaces.

We live on a street that has been constantly patched to no good effect. To make matters worse the street is on a bus route and our houses are shaken at quarterhourly intervals when the heavy buses bounce across the bumps and hollows.

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that this is contributing to the deterioration in our properties as we see significant cracks opening in the cladding of our houses.

We support the use of public transport and are happy to be on a bus route. However, we urge the city council to undertake thorough and permanent repairs to ensure that our roads are fit for that purpose.

Marion Christie and Adam Daykin

St Kilda

Let down by buses

I AM an enthusiastic user and supporter of our urban bus network but I was badly let down on two recent occasions.

The first saw us dropped off well past our bus stop when the driver failed to respond to the buzzer/light. It meant that we were dropped off on

Old Coach Rd in Fairfield and had to make our way 200 metres back up a narrow, busy, 80kmh road, with no footpath.

The second occasion saw us arrive at the bus stop five minutes before the advertised due time, only to see the taillights of the bus disappearing in the distance with the next bus 90 minutes later.

I can understand a bus being five minutes late but five minutes early is inexcusable.

The buses have improved immensely in the past few years but on these two occasions operator error saw my wife and I put in an unsafe situation and forced to endure an uncomfortable wait for the next alternative transport. Clive Boock

Dunedin

Bridging finance

SOMEBODY please enlighten me how that little footand cycling bridge across the railways in Dunedin can cost the same as the 250metre, twolane highway across the Kawarau in Frankton?

I read that the Kawarau bridge cost $22 million and that bridge in Dunedin could cost $20 million.

Something can’t be right.

Arne Leuchs

Dalmore