Mayor’s national role provides insights
I READ the mayor’s message in the August edition of the FYI magazine and was nonplussed.
Mayor Dave Cull seems to have lost touch with Dunedin, and is more concerned with the bigger picture of Local Government New Zealand, which is a bit overpowering frankly. He is fixated with the costs of doing business for the whole of New Zealand.
He makes issues of climate change, housing, and water issues, as a national matter regardless of the facts as they pertain to Dunedin’s position. It seems that he is worried about the costs for all, as opposed to Dunedin alone, where his interests are called. He claims the status quo is NOT an option.
Neither is the status quo an option in addressing those other issues.
What, may I ask, are these other issues that are so totally engrossing? He claims that items such as water won’t be indiscriminately available.
What? Since when has Dunedin been short of water? Not simply piled in a hole according to him, nor indiscriminately available, polluted and wasted. Housing won’t be expensive oneoffs. What exactly does he mean by that? He then goes on to say that central and local government and ratepayers need to manage a huge amount of change while remaining committed to sustaining and improving our commitment to sustaining and improving our communities. The status quo is NOT an option.
He owes it to the local folk for an explanation of what he means by ‘‘the status quo is NOT an option for Dunedin.’’ Again, what does he mean by that? We need to know.
Calvin Oaten
The Gardens [Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull replies: ‘‘Some of the biggest challenges facing our city over the next decade — climate change, housing and reducing waste — are the same challenges facing communities all over New Zealand. The way we have done things in the past — i.e. the status quo — is not an option. That’s both in terms of how we respond to those challenges AND how we fund those responses. New, innovative solutions will be needed. And due to the scale of the challenges and the costs involved, new funding streams will be needed so ratepayers do not bear all the burden of the costs.
Water provision, disposal and quality, albeit different in each community, is an area facing a major shakeup by government that will potentially affect every community in New Zealand. My LGNZ role involves frequent contact with government ministers and gives me useful insights into how these challenges, and Government’s reaction to them, could impact Dunedin.’’]
THERE is only one person responsible for Dunedin’s cycle lane fiasco, the $35,000atime ‘‘Barnes dance’’ traffic lights, and the general, everincreasing traffic congestion and delays. That is our mayor; who is also the chairman of an organisation representing all the mayors in New Zealand.
But ‘‘Ah’’, you might say, ‘‘the city is thriving and growing?’’ It’s a university town, for goodness sake, and that’s all it is. The charm and ambience it once had is being destroyed, and the councillors who support the ‘‘dreams’’ of the mayor deserve all that’s hopefully coming to them in the next local body elections. I. Williams
Dunedin
Fluoride
THE views of newspapers come and go.
While at present the ODT
‘‘recognises fluoridation of water as an essential public health measure’’ (ODT, 30.8.18), in 1957 it had the opposite view and stressed the ‘‘right of an individual to accept or reject such treatment as he sees fit’’ (ODT,
22.7.57).
Time will tell what the newspaper’s view will be in a few more decades. Bruce Spittle
Ocean View