Council going against wishes of the majority
THE council’s vote on the contentious George St proposals beggars belief.
Planner Kobus Mentz got it wrong. The Dunedin City Council staff recommendation was wrong. The 6000ratepayer petition got it wrong. Seventyfive percent of Dunedin citizens got it wrong.
Nine Dunedin City councillors got it right. Phew — a closerun thing, methinks.
Seriously, the supporting reasons for this decision from the faithful don’t stand a close scrutiny.
Finn Campbell’s concern for the pedestrians is admirable but when was the last fatality in George St?
Christine Garey’s mother tragically could have been run over on any city street; Michaela Waite Harvey’s dire warning is only her opinion and seems curiously welltimed; Cr BensonPope’s asinine comment regarding dissenting viewpoints is straight out of the Donald Trump handbook.
This decision completely ignores the other elephant in the council chambers — the impending gridlock from the hospital rebuild, where Dunedin needs every major thoroughfare it can muster.
That nine obsessive councillors continue with this charade and ride roughshod over the concerns of the affected businesses, the longsuffering motorists, the elderly and infirm, the expert opinions from qualified professionals, is in my view both sinister and disturbing and definitely a cause for future concern. L. McConnell
Mosgiel
St John funding
LET’S see if I have this right.
During the lockdown, a Queenstown company that charges tourists a small fortune to tie an elastic band around their feet and jump off a bridge received
$10.2 million from the Government to stop it going bust while Covid19 kept the tourists away.
Meanwhile, St John, the apex first responder in New Zealand, has to scramble for every cent received and is even considering cutting services and laying staff off.
If 90% of New Zealanders think that St John should be fully funded by the Government, why isn’t it happening?
B. Thompson
Weston
Coastal erosion
COUNTLESS meetings over the years, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, about the erosion of the Dunedin City Council’s eastern beaches.
Well, keep thinking, councillors. With all your schemes and dreams, noone yet has ever conquered the power of the sea.
Joseph Dick
Balclutha
Lee Vandervis
IT would appear that from ‘‘go to whoa’’, a lot of time and money will have been expended on the evergrowing DCC versus Vandervis saga, judging by the number of people involved in discussions and now at least one QC involved.
Words such as ‘‘blown out of all proportion’’, ‘‘time wasted’’ and
‘‘cost to ratepayers’’ spring to mind. Humphrey Catchpole
Dunedin Central