Less traffic should lead to a nicer city centre

IT is surprising that many of the letters and opinion pieces published about the proposed changes to the centre of George St seem to have the view that the majority of people would want to park right outside the shops.

Some have the perception that any reduction in speed limits or enhancements for pedestrians will ‘‘ruin it’’ for businesses.

In my experience, parks in the centre of George St are only easy to find before the shops open and in the evenings. They are impossible to find during business hours.

Parking there is also time limited, generally allowing only 5min or 30min. You are more likely to be fined if parking there. This does not allow for a relaxed shopping trip.

At best, a longer park in a side street may become available but only if you keep circling and looking. This can be timeconsuming and frustrating.

For the serious shopper, a person wanting to browse and most likely to spend money at several shops, parking in George St in a timelimited space is not an option. It is so much easier to drive directly to a parking building, or hop on a bus and exit where convenient.

I don’t understand how enhancing the area for pedestrians would reduce shop visits. Other carless street malls around the country generally teem with lots of people.

It seems more likely that people would be attracted to an area because it is pleasant and welldesigned for consumers. Therefore, in the interests of good design, less or no cars, and at the very least, slowing down traffic to allow easier crossing from one side of the street to the other would help access. Also, it would be silly to remove buses from George St especially if they could be free for passengers transiting through the centre so they can hop on and off.

Bronwyn Hegarty

Waitati

Missing cartoons

We have been subscribers to the Otago Daily Times for nearly 13 years, ever since moving back to Dunedin from

Auckland. Well done for keeping the puzzles you published during the Covid19 lockdown. But where have the comic strips gone? Life is not complete without our daily dose of Charlie Brown, Calvin and so on. Bring them back pronto, please.

C. Thomson

Dunedin

It is great to have the new page of puzzles but we seem to have lost the best of the strips. I look forward to seeing Calvin’s latest adventure. I will not enjoy the paper so much now if it is not continued.

Ian Mckay

Oamaru

Has nobody else written to you to say they miss the cartoon strips? I look forward each morning to the clever wit of their captions, and I trust you will resume their daily publication, and not relegate them to the Weekend Mix.

Alan Roddick

Waverley

[Thank you to these and the many other readers who have offered feedback on our newlook puzzle page. We are excited about the expanded range of offerings on the page, and continue to seek feedback from readers. Your passionate views on the comic strips are noted and we are reviewing. We have moved some features from Diversions to the Weekend Mix. — Ed.]

Trawler hulk

I SEE that the Environmental Protection Authority has given permission for the burnt hulk of the Dong Won trawler (toxic components included?) to be dumped 25 nautical miles southeast of Otago Harbour. This seems to have been decided without any public input and in circumstances that appear quite worrying. Clearly, the EPA has failed in its duty.

I urge leaders both national and local to make sure this act of environmental desecration does not happen.

J. Munro Green Island

IN recognition of the importance of readers’ contributions to the letters page, the newspaper each week selects a Letter of the Week with a book prize courtesy of Penguin Random House. This week’s winner is Jeanne Bernhardt, of Lawrence, for a letter about some of the benefits of a quieter life during lockdown. The prize is a copy of Scented, by Laurence Fearnley. The winning letter was printed on Tuesday and can be read on the ODT website.