Bank move doesn’t make sense

So, Westpac has decided to shift 250 jobs to Auckland (Jan 17).

Westpac says it wants to centralise information technology operations. This is ironic when cyber digital technology actually enables efficient instant remote communication, including virtual meetings with staff in other cities, and even enables global businesses to be run from, say, Queenstown Lakes District.

But doesn’t having staff all together in Bank HQ bring benefits from face-to-face engagement? Try telling that to all the folk being directed straight to ATMs upon entering a branch door, or to those living in small towns where closed bank branches mean internet banking is the only practical option.

Perhaps Westpac wants to profit from its employees increasing the size of their home mortgages: the median house price in Auckland is $200,000 more than the median house price in Wellington.

And surely this banking corporation doesn’t really want its workforce to spend less time with families: according to a recent university study (NZ Attitudes and Values Study), Aucklanders spend half an hour more each week commuting to work than do Wellingtonians.

WJ Winter, Eastbourne

I read Westpac to move capital jobs north (Jan 17) with a sense of sadness that our city is losing more jobs to the Queen City. However, customers might be reassured by CEO Karen Silk’s comment that the move would result in faster services.

Having recently left Westpac after being a customer for 50 years, faster services can’t come soon enough for current customers. I left the bank as I was tired of waiting a minimum of 30 minutes to speak to a customer ‘‘service’’ representative.

Having moved to a New Zealandowned bank I can now speak to a true customer service representative as soon as I dial the number. It is surprising that Westpac continues to make huge profits while offering what most people would say is customer abuse.

Geoffrey Horne, Roseneath

Parochial nonsense

Opinion articles over Wellington and Christchurch population sizes (Jan 16, 17) highlight parochial nonsense. Methods for counting populations are highly questionable, indeed different for each city.

The problem is in the definition of city. A city is more than an urban area of a predetermined population. A city implies a great deal of autonomy; an airport, universities, provides employment for its residents and services a wide region.

Under successive local government legislation the term city has been inadequate to describe large satellite communities, the first of which to be granted city status was Lower Hutt in 1941.

Examples of other non-autonomous satellites granted city status since then included Upper Hutt, Porirua, North Shore and Manukau. In the case of the last two, their absorption into Auckland was sensible.

Christchurch is one single autonomous city governed by one local authority.

Greater Wellington and Hawke’s Bay, (Napier, Hastings) are the only urban regions in NZ not governed by one authority.

To compare Christchurch with Wellington by any other means than the total population of Greater Wellington is misleading. As for residents of Ka¯ piti being separate from Wellington, they are no more so than those of Hibiscus Coast are from Auckland.

Phil Dickson, Boulcott

‘Brats’ can’t compare

It’s easy to get excited about something you have a passion for but sometimes something else has to grab your attention as a neutral.

Two things spring to mind for me personally. One is the incredible effort of the Black Caps last year in their attempt to win the Cricket World Cup. The other was Rafael Nadal’s effort in trying to win the Australian Tennis Open in 2017.

Nadal was, by all accounts, too old, but many of us went to the practice court before the final. We didn’t expect him to show up because of his incredibly long, and engrossing, five-set semifinal the previous evening.

However, he did show up in the 40-degree heat for an hour’s practice and

put on a display that defied belief. What an incredible athlete.

He then stayed around afterwards and signed children’s autographs. At least 100, and that took him an extra hour, with sweat pouring off him. These kids would not describe tennis ‘‘lame as’’.

What a legend and a great ambassador for his sport and let’s not forget the fiveset final against the GOAT, which I missed a flight for. Gracious in defeat as he always is.

So Mark Reason (Jan 15) may find the performances of John McEnroe and Nick Kyrgios exciting but in my opinion the ‘‘brats’’ never got close to the excitement Nadal and Federer have brought to the game.

As for Bjorn Borg, he was boredom personified.

Tom Reid, Camborne

Charles all affability

I am mystified by Rosemary McLeod’s It took an actress to call a halt to the playacting (Jan 17) where she describes Prince Charles as ‘‘eternally ill-at-ease’’. Does she not recall the affable and gallant Charles filling in for the absence of the bride’s father at Meghan and Harry’s wedding?

Given that no-one from Meghan’s side apart from her mother (for whatever reason) attended the ceremony, it’s a bit rich of McLeod to allude to dysfunction in the royals.

I note that in her post-conference statement Her Majesty pulled the discussion back from ‘‘North America’’ as was briefly touted and centred it on ‘‘Canada’’. The Queen knows from the Windsor debacle in the 30s that an alternative to the Court of St James in a foreign country is to be avoided.

Rob Harris, Dannevirke

Front and centre, please

Warming oceans warn of looming climate disaster (Jan 15) was informative, simple to understand, and alarming reading. It is only by having this type of reporting placed front and centre that politicians and others will wake up to the dire consequences which are bound to follow.

Further, someone in a position to do something about it must start a planning process to work on defences against sea level rise.

Lower Hutt is particularly at risk – an organisation planning an extension to its premises in Petone was told that, in 30 years’ time, the property would be under water. This also applies to places such as Island Bay, Ka¯ piti Coast, and Porirua, not to mention the entire Wellington CBD. I quote: oceans have risen four and a half times faster since 1987.

We all need to read this sort of scientific evidence. And yet it was hidden away on page 23, when it deserved frontpage promotion. Yes, there was a small box on page 2, but that would be easily missed. The Dominion Post must place a lot more emphasis on climate change in future.

Robert Bevan Smith, Vogeltown

Dismay at billboard

I was dismayed to see a huge Nicola Willis/National Party billboard near the Basin Reserve. It exhorts the public to sign a petition demanding a second Mt Victoria tunnel to ease congestion.

Instead of considering a tunnel as a solution to traffic woes, the billboard should have read: ‘‘Tired of sitting in traffic? Get out of your car and on to public transport, a bike or your own two feet. That’s the way to reduce congestion and make Wellington a more liveable city.’’

In the climate emergency happening over the world, we should not be encouraging measures that will cause people to stay in their cars and increase transport emissions, which is what all new road-building projects will do.

Instead of pandering to the interests of their wealthy donors in the road transport, oil and other corporate lobbies, Wellington-based MP Willis and the National Party should listen to the scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, like James Renwick from Victoria University, and take real action to mitigate climate change, something they conspicuously failed to do during their recent nine years in power. Laurence Harger, Seatoun

Rolling roadblocks

As a property owner in the Wairarapa, I dread the annual invasion of hordes of Lycra-clad cyclists. The one good thing about winter is that these rolling roadblocks disappear.

Don’t even start on how how good for the planet cycling is. That would only be true if these cyclists were using their bicycles to actually travel someplace. That isn’t the case in the Wairarapa, where they drive their bicycle-festooned cars from Wellington and all over, just to ride around in circles.

I certainly wouldn’t miss them if they took their races someplace else.

Dave Buck, Gladstone