Dunedin’s transport urgently needs reviewing

WHILE the Dunedin City Council promotes new feelgood projects in its 10year plan, the city’s transport woes continue to worsen.

The roads are congested (to the point of standstill during big events like the Ed Sheeran concerts), parking is becoming increasingly difficult, the new cycleways are confusing and dangerous, and public transport is in the hands of the Otago Regional Council — a body demonstrably unfit for the job.

The saga over Otago Peninsula bus routes (ODT, 29.3.18) is the latest of several in which the ORC has ridden roughshod over residents and their transport needs.

The DCC wants to attract more visitors and residents to Dunedin. How will they get around? What is the point of the proposed upgrades to the campus and central city or a spectacular bridge to the waterfront if access is difficult?

If the DCC is serious about promoting Dunedin as a liveable, sustainable city, it needs to take control of public transport, an essential component of good urban planning.

Ratepayers have been invited to endorse several new projects in the DCC’s 10year plan. One is more cycleways, but this alone won’t fix Dunedin’s dysfunctional transport network. It’s truly scary that this is the only new transport initiative proposed for the next decade.

What’s needed is an urgent review of transport across the board. Since the DCC hasn’t suggested it to us, we must suggest it to the DCC.

Meg Davidson

Northeast Valley

RNZ Concert great

I WISH to compliment Radio New Zealand Concert for provision of exemplary programmes. Its selection of music, song and word enhance the lives of many families.

Radio presenters express knowledge and affection for topics. Their description of pieces and composers, coupled to informal comment, create a friendship with listener households, and a help too, for sole occupants, to evade loneliness.

The concert programme remains a proud and popular component of life.

John Foley

Waimate

Murdoch treated unfairly

I WONDER now, after Keith Murdoch’s passing, if New Zealand Rugby ever thought of pardoning or officially saying sorry to Keith after his ‘‘indiscretion’’ in the Angel Hotel all those years ago?

It always appeared to me that his sentence was not commensurate with his socalled crime.

He certainly paid a big price (being the only All Black ever to be sent home from a tour) for throwing some punches in a hotel late at night.

It is a pity NZ Rugby did not acknowledge the sanction was too harsh for the misdemeanour.

Charlie Wilson

Green Island

Where’s the helpers?

I HAVE had home help for several years. However, recently the organisation Access has not been reliable. Elderly people become anxious when the carers don’t arrive and they have not been notified.

I had a marvellous helper who came regularly for several months and when she left (which the office knew about for weeks) I had to phone every week to find out if and when someone was taking her place.

Phoning is a whole other story! Marlene Turnbull

Mosgiel

Keeping promises

I AM unaware that Donald Trump has kept his preelection promise to release his tax returns.

Lynne Hill

Mosgiel