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Museum closure

The cultural hub of our province has had a battering in the past few years, only to end its run with a sudden and shocking closure.

We have had hope on several occasions and even a lovely little mockup displayed in the museum itself promising ratepayers a new building and responsible stewardship of an essential collection of historic importance.

Henry was even going to have some feathered friends of the native persuasion.

Now, in carpet-ripped-fromunder-us form, there is nowhere for Southlanders to celebrate each other, remember those on whose shoulders we stand, and preserve the precious and the rare for those who come after us.

Insofar as the new Invercargill City Council chief executive officer’s inherited debacle is concerned, one can only assume the legal obligation left no other choice than to shut up shop after years of passivity from predecessors who busily cited restrictions, regulations, reports and consents and who are, to date, suspiciously silent and appallingly absent.

This goes nowhere in attracting those 10,000 new residents by 2025 that strategic plans yodel about, as newcomers begin to realise things just get shut down if they are in the too-hard basket.

And let’s not forget about all the public consultation the council was good enough to arrange prior to this catastrophic event, pretending to ask us what we wanted for our new cultural heart.

The recent release of the ICC consultation document outlines that the ICC does not actually own the museum. So who does?

If anyone would care to organise a protest march down the main streets of our fair city, ending in a conglomeration of the faithful incensed outside the Civic Administration Building, count me in.

I am certain the turnout would be abundant. Michelle Dawson Invercargill

Earthquake prone

With respect to our ‘‘earthquakeprone’’ ex-museum: a recent headline stated that the Mayor was shocked by the closure.If so I would say that he’s completely out of touch.

Or is he merely a figurehead, the ‘‘laughing clown’’ public face whilst the devious quietly apply their agendas in the background?

And he word ‘‘prone’’ means simply that whoever is prone is lying down; or whatever they are prone to happens to them a lot. Does our ‘‘earthquake prone museum’’ get significantly more earthquakes than any other building in Invercargill?

So isn’t it naivety to inform the world’s potential tourists that by coming here they run a major risk of getting earthquaked?

Back to Mayor Tim being ‘‘shocked’’ … I believe that this is part of a conspiracy to relocate the Museum per se to the so-called CBD.

Powers have moved shockingly fast to seize an opportunity here; and if that pyramid stays closed Invercargill will be very much the poorer for it. Fait accompli - Cui bono? John Hunter Winton The trust board owns the museum and the council has the management contract. Cui bono? means ‘‘who benefits?’’ - Editor

Road cone epidemic

Travelling around the country it’s been great to see so many road works underway before winter sets in but consider the cost of all those big red road cones. I

t used to be that just a couple of road cones was enough to immediately trigger awareness by motorists that road works were ahead and slow us down. Now they can stretch as far as the eye can see.

It turns out each of them costs an eye-watering $28 (excluding GST).Multiply the thousands dotted around the country, most of them packed together cheek to jowl rather than spread out more cost-effectively, and that’s a huge taxpayer investment.

Then consider how many of those cones stand idle with absolutely no work going on for days or weeks at a time when the non-essentials could be used elsewhere rather than buying more new ones to compound the national road cone epidemic.

Surely it’s time for an inquiry to find out how the epidemic has got out of hand, whether taxpayers are being well served, and whether more cost-effective rules on how many cones are really needed at each site should be brought in.

Yes safety is critical but just how many cones does it take to tell us we’re entering a danger zone? Chris Turver Waikanae Abridged - Editor