A wild-eyed desperado running from the law
Well, I have finally made it on to the front page of the ODT (11.5.24).
My mother thought I would make the paper but in the court news. Well, she was partly right.
I have been driving my electric golf cart on the grass verge, the 250m to the golf course. Some of this verge I maintain with my ride-on mower. Is this another criminal act?
The police officer in the article said the verge and footpath are under the same laws as roads. I now have to put my cart on to my trailer pulled by my petrol guzzler down to the golf course.
On the bright side, my grandchildren thought I was a boring old fart, preaching law and order and giving all sorts of good behavioural advice. It turns out I’m a bit of an old law-breaking bastard.
Alastair D. Campbell
Clyde
Trampling on good ideas
Talk of the town at the outset of the George St upgrade, as many will remember, was the concept of an early Dunedin tram offering free rides between Moray Pl and Frederick St.
It all started as I recall, as a traditional April Fool’s Day joke in the ODT, showing the refurbished George St, superimposed with an old Opoho tram (now a popular attraction in Christchurch) running down the middle.
Among those who thought it a good idea was our current mayor, then a city councillor. Many others, myself included, who had ridden a tram through the main city mall in Melbourne, agreed.
Was anyone involved in the planning stages of the George St development listening, or showing any interest in the concept? Nothing that I can recall. Mutterings about carparking, one-way, two ways, or no parks at all, continued – and are still being bandied about three years later.
The only mention of trams I’ve seen more recently is the one being carted out of the Early Settlers Museum on route to Christchurch to join the others at Ferrymead.
Too late now for a free one running up and down George St without digging up the street to lay rails. But to be grateful, we do have a children’s playground and still the ongoing debate: one-way parking, two-way parking, or none. Did someone suggest the highway?
Lois Galer
Dunedin
Required reading
Well, it’s amazing to know that we have a psychic on council in the form of Cr Steve Walker.
Even while living in Hong Kong and Scotland, having never seen Dunedin, he just knew he wanted George St to be pedestrianised. No wait, he didn’t actually mean that; he really meant that he wants the whole world to be pedestrianised, and George St is part of that, OK?
And since he really doesn’t like Cr Weatherall poking fun at him, Mr Walker then attempts to "cancel" him by throwing that most potent and predictable of grenades, an accusation of racism.
Oh, and because he will go to any length once his ego has been bruised, he raises the spectre that somebody (Cr Weatherall perhaps?) is about to criticise the mana whenua design input into George St. Grow up, Cr Walker, and maybe walk to the library to borrow a book on prudent council governance and spending.
Ian Pillans
Dunedin
Sammy’s, as was. PHOTO: ODT FILES
Sammy’s purchase by DCC still beggars belief
Slippery Sammy’s is a Dunedin City Council ratepaying scandal. At a time when there is talk of an 18% rate increase, it is an outrage.
My Official Information Act request revealed an initial seismic assessment was carried out after the building was bought; that the building would be between 10-25% of a new building standard, because of the earthquake-prone building assessment it had never been completed “due to the known presence of asbestos in the building.”
Further, the council response said the 2018-28 long-term plan would continue to maintain the building while a long-term option was developed. By the end of February 2020, $60,521 had been spent on maintainance and rates. The council’s long-term plan has allocated $5 million for Sammy’s future.
It is crystal clear to this ratepayer, that civil servants can waste other people’s money way better than the people can spend it themselves. It is incredible that Sammy’s was bought by the DCC without doing its due diligence.
Jim Moffat
Caversham
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: editor@odt.co.nz
