Today's Letters to the Editor from readers cover topics including car charging, getting a boat shipshape and jazzing up Dunedin.
Charging cable bylaw reading needs rethink
Like a growing number of Dunedin households without off-street parking, I recently bought an electric vehicle and arranged for a home charger to be installed.
The installer declined the work, citing the DCC Roading Bylaw 2020, which prohibits placing anything on a road without council consent - and which, on the council's reading, captures a charging cable laid across the footpath even when protected by a cable cover.
The council is legally correct: in New Zealand law, a footpath sits within the definition of ‘‘road.’’
But the bylaw itself gives DCC a discretion to grant consent, and the council has confirmed it has no plans to do so, ‘‘regardless of the safety measures taken by residents.’’
This is a policy choice, not a statutory requirement. Wellington City Council, and councils across the United Kingdom and several Australian states, have gone the other way - enabling cross-pavement charging via licensed cable protectors or kerbside conduits.
The Dunedin City Council could do the same.
For residents in older urban suburbs where off-street parking is the exception rather than the rule, the blanket stance makes EV ownership materially harder. It runs against the council's own climate strategy and against the direction of comparable jurisdictions.
A modest piece of permissive bylaw discretion would unlock home charging for a meaningful share of ratepayers, at no cost to council.
Robert Ford
Opoho
Scrutiny needed
Recent decisions by Otago Regional Council highlight why the Draft Planning and Natural Environment Bills deserve urgent public scrutiny.
In the past year, ORC has repeatedly deferred or limited public consultation on key planning matters while continuing to prioritise existing Mana Whakahono ā Rohe and other ancestry-based agreements. These arrangements give one set of groups guaranteed participation rights that ordinary residents do not have.
Under the new Bills, councils must carry these agreements permanently, regardless of public input.
At the same time, ORC has advanced planning work that affects thousands of landowners - including freshwater management, land use controls, and rural zoning - without any statutory protection for property rights. The draft Bills do not include property rights in their purpose clauses, meaning councils will not be required to consider them when making decisions.
The government has said the Bills would replace the Resource Management Act. In practice, they entrench its most controversial features and lock councils like ORC into obligations that are not universal and not open to all citizens.
Otago residents deserve a planning system that applies the same rules to everyone.
Ivan Barnett
Christchurch
Not a fan
The new free trade agreement with India is without a doubt one of the worst things this coalition has done. Both Australia and Canada in 2024 have restricted student visas into their country from India, due to high amounts of visa fraud and record immigration levels which their countries couldn’t handle.
Why would New Zealand, a country with much worse infrastructure, less housing, and a lower population then think it would be a great idea to introduce uncapped student visas into the country?
People who come from a country with lower pay will be more willing to take lower pay, outcompeting New Zealand citizens (especially students), whilst the increase in population will cause the amount of available housing to decrease, forcing up rent prices.
Angus McDonald
Mosgiel
The workers who got a ship back on the sea
It was surprising to read in the article on the heritage vessel Elsie Evans (ODT 29.4.26) that it was ‘‘15 years of hard work by a group of volunteers’’ that restored the vessel to seaworthiness.
On the contrary, virtually all the vital work involved in rebuilding the Elsie Evans’ more than century-old hulk was competently carried out between 2006 and 2013 by three professional local boat-builders: namely Alvin Smith, and Peter Broere and his son Scott.
Charles Clark
Port Chalmers
Political upset
I refer to Dennis Horne’s letter (28.4.26). It seems to me Mr Horne is not impressed with Mr Luxon’s track record. May I suggest he votes for Chris Hipkins as a possible alternative at the next general election? Unfortunately Chris number two also had an unfavourable track record according to some voters at the last election.
Perhaps we should all vote for Winston Peters. He seems to be able to upset people from both sides of the political spectrum.
Alan Paterson
North East Valley
Jazzing up a blue Dunedin
Re the ongoing stadium debate, I think we should accept (and even embrace, as stoic Dunedinites) that there will be an ongoing debt, but do our best to reduce it as much as possible.
If the bigger, global stars are less likely to come to our stadium, preferring Christchurch instead, then let’s attract New Zealand and Australian bands, building on our own home-grown phenomenon Six60. These may be more intimate affairs only half-filling the stadium, whereby the use of a dividing curtain, as proposed by Paul Doorn (outgoing DVM CEO) might help provide the necessary environment.
What about a jazz and blues festival not just in Oamaru, but in Dunedin as well, hosted via our stadium?
In Scotland, the small town of Elgin (about the size of Mosgiel) is the host of the annual MacMoray festival, attracting around 10,000 attendees each day: a raging success.
In conjunction, should a waterfront development with cafes and hotels, including that key connecting overbridge by the Chinese gardens, ideally implemented and potentially subsidised through close consultation with Ngai Tahu, be revisited? Then the Octagon-stadium-waterfront triangle would be replete, potentially transforming Dunedin into the even more vibrant wee city that it has the potential to be.
Angus Mackay
Kew
[Dr Angus Mackay is standing for the Dunedin City Council in the by-election.]
Councillor exhaustion
It just goes Ong and Ong. Is there no end to this horror show?
Margaret Shaw
Mosgiel
Office suggestion
Re the company Dropkicks being in a bit of strife, and your story (30.5.26) regarding Benedict Ong’s search for a venue for himself and his mentorship ideas to be located.
May I suggest he merge with Dropkicks? He would not even need to change the name.
Denis Knight
Gore
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: letters@odt.co.nz
