Do we really want freedom campers in the city?

I WOULD like to congratulate the ODT on its QR code poll regarding the future of George St (19.11.20).

Can I suggest you make available a similar code for the purpose of capturing opinion regarding freedom camping.

It seems Mayor Hawkins believes the people of Dunedin were given a choice to ban or welcome freedom campers, and they chose the latter.

I don’t recall being asked my opinion and nor do any of my friends. Given the opportunity, we would all say ban them.

In answer to Mayor Hawkins’ question, ‘‘What tourism would look like in a zero carbon environment’’, I’d say it would be much more exclusive than he imagines.

Mass electrification of tourism would be an exceedingly expensive exercise.

In the meantime, we could develop an alternative option — ‘‘Give a tourist a ride’’, a hitchhiking strategy — which I’m sure Mayor Hawkins would wholeheartedly embrace.

Susan Broad

Outram

Hospital delays

I LAUGHED out loud at the headline, ‘‘Govt plans to speed build’’ (ODT 20.11.20) with reference to the new Dunedin Hospital.

If it was serious about delivering toprate medical services to the people of Otago in the near future then it should have been guided by common sense and chosen Wakari as the site. Resultant time and financial savings meant that we could have employed someone like international respected Zaha Hadid Architects to design us a spectacular, yet functional building and employed a large Chinese construction consortium to build the project and we would have had a superb functioning hospital operating now.

I am not referring to the Covid response type hospitals which were built in 10 days, but to modern stateoftheart permanent structures.

Meanwhile, we fluff around still trying to decide who is in charge, drill into squidgy unsuitable substrata, are poised to create permanent transportation problems and scratch our heads about the required workforce. The list goes on.

Welcome to our world.

Douglas Clark

Opoho