Make fire rules the same for townies and orchardists
So the regional council wants townies to dob in other townies that have smoking fires. To Tom Belford and his council I say you can stick that where the sun does not shine. Until such time that you make the rules the same and fair on everyone, lots will continue to ignore you. A couple of weeks ago on the last day of the school holidays I took the afternoon off work and the wife and myself took granddaughter tenpin bowling. On the way from Napier to Hastings there were about 15 large burn-offs going. On the return trip about 1.30pm across the expressway it was almost like fog with the smoke that thick. Even with the windows up it just stunk of smoke, and not a smoking chimney in sight. So if it is okay for orchardists to burn their green prunings and pollute my air space then it’s okay for me to use my old fire. And Tom, there is a law in NZ that states you can light a fire at any time with care for the purpose of cooking food. A pot lives on my free standing fire. One last thing Tom, why is okay for your orchard mates to do this? I am thinking we need a change of personnel at the regional council (if not all councils) that provide common sense rules that apply to all, not just the peasants.
Graeme Chapman
Napier
Activity levels
I read with interest Laura Wiltshire’s article on inactivity levels in Hawke’s Bay and how low we feature. Her identification that only 30 per cent of adults are getting what is recommended for activity levels, 2.5 hours/week. And this is minimum. The survey Laura referred to, an adult was considered 15 years and over, we are talking here older high school age students and I find it very disturbing that young people feature amongst these statistics. One would have thought of these years as being our most active. If we are inactive as young as this, then there is little likelihood of us being active in the later years.
When one considers the physical environment of Hawke’s Bay and how conducive it is to being active, plus the facilities that are available to us, then what is stopping us? It would be an interesting survey to find out what it is that prevents or restricts people in Hawke’s Bay from being active. Murray Smith Hastings