Best lifestyle event

Congratulations to the Centuria Taranaki Garden Festival winning the Best Lifestyle Event in New Zealand. Attracting people from all over the world brought a much-needed economic boost to the province.

A special thank you to North and South Taranaki councils for supporting the event. If Stratford Council had sponsored it, they might have then focused on the main street. With gutters blocked, weeds and moss in the gardens and up against buildings, even dandelions in flower, which people had not come to see, it was and remains a disgrace. Noted, the weeds were sprayed after the event.

The Glockenspiel, the main tourist promotion for the town, remains an embarrassment. Claiming the lack of its care is because it’s an earthquake risk is a whitewash that would have been better applied to the structure itself. And the wooden hut still languishes in Prospero Place, the broken board adding to the visual carnage, along with the propped-up fence, wild ivy, and an empty excuse for a garden.

Many have voiced their displeasure at the feral cats beneath the Centennial restrooms. Visitors to our lovely toilets had to step over the blocked gutters, around icecream containers of cat food, either covered in flies or floating in rainwater. There has been no response from the council to the many complaints. Where does responsibility begin for the estimated 100 million birds killed each year in New Zealand by cats? Note, even a well-fed cat can still cause a significant impact on its local wildlife.