Council, stay strong on Three Waters opposition please

Stick to your Three Waters decision, Rotorua Lakes Council.

The Department of Internal Affairs (News, July 1) is just toeing the party line with its “stands up” to scrutiny line.

It doesn’t have skin in the game and can make any claims to support the, in my opinion, totally impractical, undemocratic, and one-shoe-size-fits-all approach.

There is a widely held view that if you ask the right people to do a peer review you will get the answers you are looking for.

The situation the Government portrays with the Three Waters reform throughout New Zealand has been grossly overstated in my view.

The billions of dollars the Government is prepared to put into its proposed unworkable Three Waters project would be far better spent on helping individual councils meet the almost unachievable target of water quality the Government has set to support its case.

Grahame Hall

Lynmore

Masks on, please

regular bus commuter, I have experienced that the Government mandate on mask-wearing on public transport is being ignored.

Every day on one run, 10 to 12 students from a local school board the bus without masks.

The drivers, who, in the past would issue masks to those without them, no longer do so.

This is ignoring the fact that elderly commuters, as well as drivers (many of whom seem to be off sick with Covid), are at serious risk.

We are now experiencing a new wave of Omicron.

The daily death rate has risen, the majority in the over-50 age range.

Surely it is vital that drivers issue masks to anyone who needs one, thus ensuring the safety of drivers and passengers.

Jackie Evans

Pukehangi

Buying cheap

A new initiative (Seven Sharp on

Monday evening) to force manufacturers to make things “repairable” may or may not get off the mark.

I recall, back in the 1980s, buying a toaster from Osbornes, High St, Hadleigh for £14, two years later it broke and Osbornes repaired it for £18. Shortly after we bought a new toaster from a supermarket for

£6.

The same toaster, a few years later, sold for £4.

The same pattern happened with irons, kettles and several other household appliances.

They lasted a couple of years, cost hardly anything, and could not be repaired.

This theme swept across the whole gamut of usable items, even some parts for cars could not be repaired and had to be replaced.

This is a terrible pity, so much waste. Somewhere, back in the 1980s, the urge to buy cheap and chuck away became the norm.

Jim Adams

Rotorua