This city is sadly no longer as welcoming for its older citizens
DUNEDIN local authorities seem hellbent on isolating the elderly and disabled.
It started with the Otago Regional Council removing bus stops from in front of the library. The bus hub is not ‘‘an easy walk’’ for anyone on crutches or walkers, especially when it is raining or windy.
Now the Dunedin City Council has a closure of the Octagon, making it inaccessible for the same people.
Have planners never seen the need for people to be delivered and picked up for shows at the Regent? Why has the Art Gallery suddenly become a space where the elderly and disabled cannot go? And what about easy access to the 24hr public toilets in Municipal Lane? Not to mention the permission granted to Lime which has seen footpaths dangerously cluttered by scooters.
The elderly and disabled should be respected citizens of this city. We pay our rates and have done so for years.
We are not lepers but recent local authority actions have seen us becoming outcasts from the central city.
Lynne Hill
Mosgiel
Wanaka earthquake risk
THERE is a strategic flaw in the controversial plan to expand Wanaka Airport. A tourism downturn lasting some decades can be expected with the predicted Alpine Fault earthquake.
Geologists tell us a massive earthquake, potentially devastating the scenic landscape of the Southern Alps, is overdue.
The Queenstown Lakes District Council has civil defence plans for this internationalscale disaster, yet airport planning for passenger growth does not apparently consider it.
GNS Science expects the Southern Alps will be severely shaken for three minutes, damaging buildings and infrastructure and causing thousands of landslips, blocking tourist routes.
There will be no quick fix, as loosened hillsides will continue to slide with aftershocks, and with rainstorms for decades afterwards. A long tourism downturn seems inevitable due to loss of scenic beauty, reputation and ongoing infrastructure problems.
With this in mind, building a
$400 million airport appears a risky commercial venture. A risk analysis incorporating the earthquake must figure in the current review of airport options.
Graeme Halliday
Wanaka
Drinkdriving
WHY does the fact that you are a national under19 sports coach allow you to get discharged without conviction when you have driven nearly four times over the legal limit (ODT, 15.2.20)?
Would the same decision be made for someone who had a ‘‘less important’’ job, such as meat worker or factory worker?
If you have a lot more to lose then it should weigh heavily on your decision to drink and drive.
It should not allow you to get away with it because it ruins your future job prospects.
It was your choice to drink and drive so you should face the same consequences as anyone else.
S. Bryan
Winton