Building hospital on floodprone ground ‘crazy’

I AM one of the silent majority who sit by and watch things happen, but this time NO.

The new hospital to be built in Dunedin on ground that is subject to a high water table is crazy. Where else in the world would you put the three main services needed in an emergency in the same floodprone area, these being police, fire and medical?

Surely commonsense needs to prevail and learn from the Christchurch disaster.

We are told that the sea level will rise due to global warming, so why build in an area that could be subject to rising water levels?

We are being softened up for extra costs for foundations as mentioned in an article (ODT, 13.11.18) re problems with the ground.

There are existing options that have most of the ground needed and is already owned by the Southern District Health Board and not prone to sealevel increases.

Would the people making these poor decisions still persist if it was their own money being used? I doubt it!

Norm Sinclair

Dunedin

Elderly driving

DR Rebecca Brookland’s advice to older people to keep driving for as long as possible (ODT, 10.11.18) is condescending, elitist and wrong.

We should in fact stop driving as soon as possible. Apart from the fact that we old fossils owe it to children and grandchildren to stop making a big mess with our eponymous old technology, we’ll be healthier, richer and more socially connected if we hop out of cars, and on to buses and shared rides.

Cars cost money even when not in use and ruinously more when used; completely inhibit casual social encounters with fellow commuters and friendly bus drivers that can mitigate the deep loneliness that will often hit; increasingly cannot deliver us to urban cultural and social venues due to parking restrictions; and will disenfranchise us from making a contribution that could give great personal pride — another step toward the zerocarbon reinvention of our society. Alan McCulloch

Mornington