Keen to hear if National has policy on Hillside

LIKE Michael Woodhouse, I am disappointed that the Government’s railway spend hasn’t anything much for the Hillside workshops, though he does ‘‘umbrage’’ rather better than me (ODT, 16.5.20). We can only hope there will be something more further down the line.

I was, however, rather taken aback by his accusation of ‘‘a staggering act of hypocrisy’’ on the Government’s part. This from an enthusiastic member of the last government which almost destroyed Hillside altogether with the stunning argument that Chinese do trains and we do milk and we should stick to what we’re good at.

His indignation appears to be further dented insofar as his colleagues invariably condemn any spending on rail as ‘‘toys for Winston’’.

If his party has a new transport policy that would support Hillside, perhaps he could tell us about it.

Harry Love North East Valley

Green waste

WELL, the lockdown gave me time to clean up some of my overgrown garden. But the charges for a trailerload of garden vegetation (which is then made into compost and sold again, presumably) at the Dunedin City Council landfill is $44. And, I guess, because of it, the charge at the place in Burnside is $40.

Am I the only one that finds this ridiculously expensive? For a green council presumably interested in recycling green waste, this charge

seems a bit rubbish.

Bill Gilmore

Caversham

[Dunedin City Council waste and environmental solutions group manager Chris Henderson replies:

‘‘We recognise the current system of a flat disposal fee based on vehicle size does not work well for all users of the Green Island landfill. For that reason, the DCC will be installing a second weighbridge at the transfer station in the next 612 months. This will mean that all customers pay for the actual weight of materials they are dropping off, rather than paying based on the size of their vehicle.’’]