Where’s the aviation museum?

One wonders how much longer we have to wait for the promised world-class aviation museum at Masterton.

It’s been almost a year since the announcement that Masterton was to have its own museum of aviation on land adjoining the airfield, purchased at great cost by the council.

We were told preliminary planning had already begun and construction would begin within a year. Well, so far as I have observed, not a sod of dirt has been turned over yet. And nor have I seen any proper plans or layouts for our new museum.

I have been involved in the planning and layout of museums in the UK and they all have their own special requirements, particularly those that have aircraft in flying condition and that are over 100 years old.

If the council and mayor could expedite the construction of the proposed museum, it would benefit Masterton, not just by having a world-class aviation museum but by allowing other businesses, both on and off the airfield, to benefit, such as tourism and accommodation.

Finally, the museum could become an important educational and research centre providing a unique glimpse into how these aircraft were first produced and how we can continue to keep them flying.

Dr John G. Hill, Masterton [abridged]

Invalid votes don’t count

Under the single transferable vote system, 193 votes would have fallen to Justin Lester, had they been filled in correctly (Foster fights recount, Nov 7).

I think Lester is wasting ratepayer money trying to get through on invalid votes.

Mr Lester, if you are nearly there you are not there. Just accept that. Invalid votes are not counted, not for Andy Foster and not for Lester.

Adrian Moonen, Eastbourne

What about Tietjens?

Once again our most qualified rugby coach, Sir Gordon Tietjens, has been overlooked, this time for the panel selecting the next All Black coach (Henry to help choose next coach, Nov 7).

Just a reminder to NZ Rugby bosses that Tietjens has to his credit: 12 world sevens series titles; four Commonwealth

Games gold medals; and he won the Rugby World Cup sevens twice.

Sir Graham Henry has one RWC title under his belt, and that only by the skin of his teeth, or should I say the boot of ‘‘Beaver’’ Donald.

I guess it is nice to see a woman, Waimarama Taumaunu, on the panel, but she can’t possibly have the knowledge of the game and what each of the prospective coaches can bring to the game going forward that Tietjens does.

Ignore the obvious expertise that he could bring to the selection panel at NZ rugby’s peril.

Denis Healey, Paparangi

Bridge, not tunnel

A second Mt Vic tunnel will serve only to fill the cul de sac faster because traffic that goes in has to come back out the same way.

Building a combination pier/pontoon bridge from Miramar to Seaview would create a whole new world for Wellington and its airport, including a continuously running one-way light-rail loop back to Wellington via Seaview.

The long deep-water bridges of Seattle, and Tacloban, in the Philippines, are a classic example of what lateral thinking could achieve for Wellington. It’s difficult to visualise any technical argument against it.

Gary Lewis, Lower Hutt

Mid-year fireworks

Everyone who has ever held a sparkler or wowed at the whoosh of a skyrocket at a tender age will sympathise with columnist Glenn O’Connell (Yes, they’re dangerous, but don’t ban fireworks, Nov 7) and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who just can’t let fireworks go.

The time of year is the thing. Just as everything is heating up and drying out, thousands make excuses to do exactly the wrong thing and project uncontrolled burning objects into the environment and hundreds of firefighters have to spend the night putting out the flames.

Guy Fawkes is of no interest or relevance to us. Matariki is the culturally appropriate time to celebrate with crackers if we must indeed continue to frighten animals and keep babies awake. At least the chance of fire on June 25 or thereabouts is much reduced. And ban the bangers.

Marg Pearce, Whitby

New flyovers

Over the past few weeks the scaffolding and boxing has been coming off the flyovers over State Highway 1 south of Porirua connecting into the Transmission Gulley route.

These flyovers are supported by single cylindrical columns which, to my layman’s eye, do not look capable of withstanding the lateral shaking forces of a medium-sized earthquake.

The northern flyover into Porirua City further north on SH1 has been around for many years and withstood several shakes and is supported by a much wider column.

In the interests of public safety, perhaps the engineers involved in the design of these slender support columns could be asked whether adequate provision has been made for Wellington’s earthquake risks.

We do not need a repeat of the Cypress Street Viaduct collapse in the 1989 San Francisco earthquake.

Logan McLennan, Plimmerton

Turn off the tap

We keep hearing of a housing shortage, teacher shortage, health system shortages, more traffic on the roads and pressure on the welfare system.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise given the continuing population increase, due to immigration. It is surprising the Labour Party hasn’t worked it out – NZ First’s Shane Jones has.

The pressure on the infrastructure is also increased due to the influx of foreign students. They also need somewhere to live and many will buy cars.

Karl Oliver, Lower Hutt

Trolleys didn’t fit model

It is understood that NZ Bus has called tenders for the scrapping of the 50+ trolleybuses made useless by the closure of the Wellington electric network in October 2017.

These buses were 100 per cent electric, were all around a decade old, and were replaced by second-hand diesel buses under the regional council’s infamous Wellington Bus Renewal project.

While the trolleybuses being scrapped were owned by NZ Bus, they – and their electric supply network – had been much subsidised by public funding through NZTA and GWRC.

It would be useful to hear reported how much compensation has been paid from those same public sources for their premature obsolescence.

The trolleybus closure fitted the policy theory of the PTOM (Public Transport Operating Model) so in official eyes it would be seen as success and a ’’good thing’’ as the emissions reductions from electric vehicles is not a relevant factor.

It’s all a dismal display of policy formation, of unintended consequences and of waste being swept under the carpet of bland PR.

Alan Smith, Woburn

Correction

A sentence in Richard Arlidge’s letter yesterday, headed District Plan hypocrisy, should have said: ‘‘Just goes to show the ‘Climate Emergency’ was just virtue signalling . . .’’, not ‘‘Just goes to show the chief executive was just virtue signalling . . .’’ The error, which occurred during editing, is regretted.