We have waited long enough for our library
DOES South Dunedin really need a library and community centre? Yes it does.
With a population of 11,000, many of whom are elderly, people with disability and the very young, this is an area with clear vulnerabilities.
We have more ethnically diverse people here than in other areas of Dunedin, many of whom are former refugees who face the difficult task of finding their way into a new culture with the isolation that that can entail; 15% of the population earns between $20,000 and $25,000; and 40% of the population rents their home compared to 29% citywide.
What that means in practice is that having spare money for bus fares to town, for the under65s, is a nogo.
Families with young children are unlikely or unable to make the trip, and buses for those with disabilities are hard to manage and infrequent.
What does a library and community centre offer a community? Obviously, books, magazines and information from a multitude of sources. But it also offers a readily accessible richness of activities, learning opportunities, gathering spaces and places to connect with and celebrate our community.
This is a community of resilience and strength which wants and deserves the sort of resourcing which has been denied it over generations.
When St Kilda Borough merged with the Dunedin City Council, a library was promised, and that was over 30 years ago!
South Dunedin is on the rise and a library and community centre of our own will surely strengthen our sense of being ‘‘a good place to live, work and play’’.
Eleanor Doig South Dunedin Community
Network chairwoman
[Abridged]
SDHB costs
COULD the chief executive of the Southern District Health Board give us a breakdown of the $26 million spending on preparation for Covid19?
For example, how much on face masks, and so on.
We seem to be getting daily updates on spiralling debt in our southern hospital accounts and further delays in elective surgery. How is spending prioritised?
M. Cowan
Concord
[Southern DHB chief executive Chris Fleming replies:
‘‘To date, approximately $26 million has been spent on operating costs and $1.2 million invested in capital items, related to Covid19. There are other indirect costs as well. The DHB has been supported by the Ministry of Health and most of these direct Covid19 costs are funded by them. They have also paid for equipment such as ventilators and PPE.
‘‘Broad areas of cost include: $8 million on staffing, $12 million on testing, $1 million on PPE, and $5 million on primary and community health response.
‘‘While these were unbudgeted and unwelcome expenses over the past year, they reflected an enormous effort on the part of our staff and healthcare workers from across the southern health system. And we are very mindful that the costs to our society and healthcare system of not controlling the virus would have been much greater.‘‘]
Norman Kirk
IN response to Colin Jury (Letters, 11.2.21), in 1973 I wrote to Prime Minister Norman Kirk regarding the atomic testing in the Pacific by France. I also asked if he was of Maori ancestry.
He replied on July 23, 1973, ‘‘unfortunately I do not have any Maori heritage but I would be very proud to be part of the Maori race.’’
That is straight from the hoiho’s mouth.
Don Saxton
Dunedin