Motorists urged to have a say over proposals

I URGE all who use State Highway 1 in central Dunedin to submit comment on the proposed changes to the New Zealand Transport Agency website.

The current oneway configuration, with its ‘‘Green Wave’’ is the safest and most efficient for vehicles, pedestrians and now, cyclists. Any changes will ruin these qualities.

The oneway pair will always carry the majority of the northsouth traffic in the city due to congestion on other routes, and proposed changes in George St.

The hospital partnership group has not invented pedestrians. Hospitals built beside state highways, or the ability for heavy goods vehicles to access its site all existed long ago.

They have, however, rejected a site already government owned, with good ground, ample space and height above sea level, together with a liberal covering of grass and trees – in favour of the centre city site bordered by three of the busiest roads in the city. Then they published a concept drawing showing those three roads planted out in trees.

The planners have already given us the ‘‘South Dunedin Cycleway to Nowhere’’, and the ‘‘Harbourside Bridge to Nowhere’’.

We do not need the ‘State Highway to Gridlock’.

Ray Phipps

St Kilda

Vera Lynn remembered

YES Clive McNeill, I remember the Vera Lynn/Eddie Calvert concerts very well (ODT letters, 2.7.20). I was their bass player for the New Zealand tour which started in Auckland on February 12, 1966.

The tour lasted for five weeks, with eight performances each week, which included a concert in Dunedin.

Miff Smith was the pianist and Bobby Adrian the drummer. As a trio we accompanied Vera and Eddie. Also on tour was Pier Cartier, a French magician, and Peter Goodwright, a comedian.

Your letter brought back many happy memories for me.

You mentioned Red Moore. I am sure he was the American Indian trombonist who played in the Louis Armstrong Dunedin concert in 1964. John Campbell

Oamaru