Too many good reasons not to put playground at harbour basin
CR BensonPope’s illconceived idea of a children’s playground in the harbour basin at a major city thoroughfare is absurd to the extreme. There are far better places to site a playground at much lower cost than this windy bleak area with constant traffic.
Shifting the road and on/off ramp to the overbridge will come with enormous cost and inconvenience. Even then the main bridge pillars may still be in the way.
Large structures, rather than trees that will take too long to grow, will also be required at huge cost to mitigate the wind coming of the harbour on one side and the traffic noise on the other side. If the DCC want to encourage people to use the new footbridge then they should support development of attractions around the harbour basin, such as the new aquarium.
Eric Lord
Waverley
IT was with disbelief that I read your front page on December 11. I thought it was April Fool’s Day. I do not believe that anyone would seriously remove the overbridge off ramp to Wharf St and replace it with a playground. The city town planners are apparently mad cyclists with a vendetta towards motorists. This off ramp is used by hundreds of cars every day escaping the carnage and queues on the one way roads going north. Please don’t destroy something that works.
UN compact
Jenny Frost
St Leonards THE position of Simon Bridges and the National Party on the UN migration compact is simply absurd. They argue that New Zealand should not sign the pact alongside 160 other countries because it will diminish our sovereignty. In reality, every international agreement requires a concession of sovereignty from all countries involved in order to reach a shared goal. This is the nature of the international system in which international cooperation requires international concessions.
If National wins the next election and universally applies this principle, New Zealand will find itself very alone in the world. This would see us withdraw from all of our trade, human rights and climate change agreements; because all of these require to some degree a concession of sovereignty. The idea of electing someone with such little understanding of foreign policy to be prime minister, without mentioning the underlying populist tone of this policy, is concerning. Thankfully, current polls show this to be an unlikely scenario. Ryan Jones Port Chalmers