Revamp or rebuild Founders

The Auckland Aotea Centre, Wellington’s Michael Fowler Centre and the Civic Centre in Christchurch stand in space separate from their central streets.

The Founders Theatre site was chosen by a previous council to take congestion away from the Embassy Theatre, which had doubled as a movie theatre and live entertainment centre for years.

Public access was only from Victoria Street and vehicles unloading stage equipment used a narrow riverbank road behind the theatre.

Founders was financially supported by many city residents at that time and offers public access from all three sides, free parking including disability and easy access for unloading musical and stage equipment.

I am upset that this beautiful, tree-framed site which includes a fountain is being ignored by the current council.

It is time council got some backbone and stopped being led by the nose with the promise of free money from Momentum Group, which includes city developers with personal monetary interest in pushing the new site – a future white elephant!

The Hamilton Hotel site should be used to build a fivestar hotel to support the proposed $550,000 jetty, museum and central city.

Sydney Wright, Hamilton

Health of the ocean

It’s time to consider the health of the ocean and New Zealand’s responsibility to it as the country with the fourth-largest EEZ in the world.

The Kermadec Island group and its surrounding water space should hold World Heritage status and be a no-go area to all forms of commercial fishing. The islands should have an international group of researchers and a patrol vessel from each country to help keep out the commercial fishing thieves.

The childish game of politics the New Zealand First Party is playing by fighting to allow the commercial fishers to put out hundreds of thousands of hooks in this area of marine wonder is the worst form of gutter politics New Zealand has ever publicly witnessed. Those hooks will also kill thousands of sea birds and endangered turtles. Labour and the Greens should take the full reserve proposal for the Kermadecs to Parliament and vote for the Kermadec World Heritage park because the National Party also wants the reserve.

This would leave NZ First as the only party to oppose the Kermadec proposal and so isolated and exposed.

The public would see firsthand just how low a desperate political party is willing to go to stay in power.

The turtles, dolphins, penguins, birds and tuna will pay the price as NZ First tries to save itself and that’s shallow and disgusting.

Rhys Smith, Thames

Wet wipes

The issue of the wet wipes clogging the sewage and watertreatment systems is a textbook case of one of the greatest contradictions in our society. Manufacturers and corporations are allowed to accumulate profits from products that constitute an enormous cost to the collective running of society and to the environment. Wet wipes are just another of the myriad forms of single-use throwaway plastics that are suffocating the planet. Asking manufacturers to consider using biodegradable materials or asking consumers to consider not using these products is never going to solve it. What is needed is legislation to ban these products outright. The problem is that urgent.

Paul Judge, Hamilton

Vote for me!

I’m standing for council. Anyone who doesn’t vote will be a vote for me because you didn’t say no.

I have the perfect policy platforms - mandatory alliterations, double-digit rate rises every year, petrol taxes, no vision to worry about and Garden Place upgrade annually.

I will promise (heh, heh) to reduce costs, look at council productivity and to make good use of consultants.

And to complete the quality of my candidacy I will move to Melbourne so I can take a broad picture approach to everyday Hamilton issues.

Bruce Cresswell, Hamilton