Urban sprawl

A succession of city councils and governments have pursued ill-conceived urban growth policies, making Auckland the urban sprawl champion of the country.

Little thought was given to the legacy this produced for future generations, who are now faced with a daily nightmare to travel to and from their place of work, excessively high vehicle running and maintenance costs and burgeoning per capita rates.

Most of these problems could have been prevented by going up rather than going out.

By increasing the population density per square kilometre, the per capita cost of roading, transport, reticulation of all utilities goes down for two reasons: ie, the cost of creating infrastructure is lower and there are more people sharing the cost.

(Approximate people per square kilometre in Auckland is 12,700, and in Hamilton it’s 17,600.)

Our Hamilton City Council is planning the availability of land to cope with future urban growth (Waikato Times June 23, P2).

The unceasing cutting up of prime dairy farm land to accommodate the urban sprawl we already have is producing the same or similar problems facing the average Aucklander.

Hamilton city councillors, put on your thinking caps and plan to avoid making life even more difficult than it already is for people who live and work in this city of ours!

Lock up the city boundary and you will find that developers will go up because they will have no option!

J Dekker

Hamilton