Vaccination process is chaotic
On Thurday, April 29, I emailed the District Hospital Board address to book a Covid 19 vaccination for my wife and myself to be given at either Whanga¯ rei or Kerikeri.
My wife also telephoned the 0800 number to arrange a booking. We have received no reply to our email and the 0800 number either does not reply or simply disconnects.
It is now Saturday, May 1 and we decided to drive to Kerikeri, which entails a drive of over one hour from near Rawhiti, and wait in line for our vaccinations.
We arrived at the clinic opening time, 9am to be told the centre was fully booked for the day and no walkin vaccinations were available. No information is available online to tell people if walk-in vaccinations are available on any given day. We gave our details at the clinic and were told we would be phoned and given a booking date.
About 30 minutes after arriving home we received a phone call informing us that there were a surplus of vaccination doses today and we could drop in for our vaccinations. We declined.
There has clearly been no planning for this operation which is now hopelessly disorganised. The executives responsible for this mess
should, in my opinion, be summarily fired.
John Elliot Hikurangi
Landscape woes
The WDC Parks and Recreation Department is to be commended for the general quality and management of its street and walkway planting and landscaping. In particular, the planting of the new Kamo Town Centre shared walkway is a good example of the creative and attractive use of mainly native plants. It is all the more disappointing, therefore, to find that the town planning department apparently cannot ensure that private developments are also required to meet acceptable landscaping standards. The accompanying photos reveal an unimpressive picture in the Kensington area. The Northland Orthopaedic Centre has recently removed the interesting variety of planting originally done by Russell Fransham, one of Northland’s leading landscapers, only to replace it with an abysmally dull, skimpy planting of ubiquitous lomandra. The pavement verge planting at the new Kensington Crossing development is an even more sorry sight.
Surely the expertise of the town council landscapers could have been used to ensure a more interesting and attractive outcome in developments such as these?
Nigel Chadwick,
Kensington