Lots of money to tell us what we already know

THE article detailing the council’s expenditure of $250,000 on a ‘‘rapid review’’ of climate change strategy almost defies belief (ODT, 10.2.21).

I wonder what the brief was, or terms of reference, as the conclusions could have been offered by any 12yearold you stop on the street.

Use ebikes, electric cars, more buses, and, oddly, reduce ‘‘the kilometres travelled by people’’. Oh, and formulate a new climate change plan.

Brilliant. Worth every cent of a quarter of a million dollars.

What were the people who commissioned this review expecting? Some magic suite of novel ideas and activities not yet invented, or not discoverable by anyone on the internet?

This brainless profligacy has to stop. These people have just spent the equivalent of the annual rates of 100 houses on yet another anodyne, unhelpful report, the only apparent result of which is to justify the employment of six extra council staff to implement its blatantly obvious recommendations.

Ian Pillans

Maori Hill

Clutha council

I WISH John Fenby and the new Clutha Residents and Ratepayers Association every success in holding the Clutha District Council to account (ODT, 10.2.21).

My experience with the CDC is evidence that it is not a prudent steward of ratepayer funds on larger capital projects.

In 2017, my company was awarded $2 million costs in a dispute with the CDC over the Balclutha Pool. The decision to continue with legal action and not settle the claim for much less was by the current chief executive, Steve Hill.

The judgement noted that ‘‘the lack of contractual knowledge’’ by the CDC senior staff involved in the contract awards was ‘‘remarkable’’.

The CDC ended up paying over $600,000 in interest costs alone on what the judgement described as ‘‘egregious’’ deductions made by CDC and its consultant quantity surveyor, Jeremy Shearer.

In 2018, I made a presentation to the full council where I said that the CDC had been very badly advised by Mr Shearer, and had an extremely strong case to bring an action to recover a very large proportion of the $2 million from Mr Shearer and his insurers.

The judgement said he had engaged in fiction and had been ‘‘punitive and vexatious’’.

I offered to assist CDC in bringing an action. The council declined to take any action to recover upwards of a million dollars of ratepayer funds, and Mayor Cadogan, when presented with proof of inflammatory statements he made on National Radio, claimed he had no memory or knowledge of them.

The CDC, at all levels, most definitely needs more scrutiny. Russell Lund Macandrew Bay

Euthanasia

MIKE Houlahan (ODT, 9.2.21) focused on funding for assisted dying, and quoted an anonymous doctor who is an opponent.

The Ministry of Health needs to find out which doctors are prepared to be involved, and if you were a doctor being asked, isn’t the matter of funding relevant?

And what about the other six areas of inquiry that never got a mention?

Many medical professionals know from experience that palliative care cannot relieve all suffering at the end of life. To suggest that exercise of compassion would require monetary incentive is a bit insulting.

The End of Life Choice Act is coming into force later this year, whether the anonymous doctor participates or not. We citizens voted in favour at the referendum last year.

The headline should have been ‘‘Dying patients welcome MoH doing its job’’.

D. Cooper

Waikanae ...................................

BIBLE READING: The name of the Lord is a fortified tower. — Proverbs 18.10.