Today's Letters to the Editor from readers cover topics including mining land, calculating the benefit of cycleways and hands off the Octagon.
I’ve been to see it and not much to be seen
Last weekend I traversed a 10km unformed legal (“paper”) road which runs through the proposed Santana Bendigo mine site.
The road's legal alignment has been signposted by activists opposed to the mine who are promoting the public to walk what they call the “Fools Gold Road’’ and to discover for themselves the impact of the proposed mine ‘‘on the ground”.
To judge by much of the anti-mining rhetoric in the activist's brochure about the paper road, I was expecting an outstanding wild landscape covered in precious native vegetation and full of native wildlife and significant historic gold mining ruins. The reality was somewhat different to say the least.
The mine site proved to be located in an obscure hidden gully in one of the least scenic parts of the Dunstan Range, many kilometres from any habitation or vineyards. The ground cover consists largely of depleted pasture that has been repeatedly burnt and over-grazed for more than 150 years. Much of what was not bare eroded ground covered in rabbit droppings was in woody weeds, broom and briar.
There were only three significant kōwhai trees encountered and a single McCann’s skink, which is abundant throughout Central Otago. The mining ruins consisted basically of a few nondescript widely scattered piles of rock.
The proposed mine site is nowhere near the iconic Bendigo historic sites at Welsh Town and Logan Town. There are hundreds of thousands of hectares of similar mid-altitude land in Central Otago including many areas of far more ecological, scenic and historic interest. The footprint of the proposed mine will be but a tiny proportion of the least valuable land of this type. The anti-mining activists are not helping their cause by grossly exaggerating the significance of the site and catastrophising any remotely possible adverse environmental effects of the mine.
Peter Dymock
Alexandra
Calculating benefit
Re Elspeth McLean’s article (Opinion ODT 6.5.26). What we need to examine is the effectiveness of Dunedin’s cycleways.
Many years ago the Dunedin City Council declared a climate emergency. One way to respond to this was to build cycleways to reduce emissions. What is required is a cost benefit analysis.
Calculate the total emissions produced with the construction and maintenance of all Dunedin cycleways, and assess the total number of trips saved by comparing the total number of commuters trips by vehicles or bikes.
When you have this information it is possible to calculate the emissions saved by cycle transport. The emissions produced by construction can now be subtracted from the emissions saved.
This will give you a figure of the total reduction in emissions. To understand the cost benefit, now calculate the total cost of the infrastructure to calculate the cost of carbon emissions saved per tonne of carbon.
Alan Paterson
North East Valley
No bar
Prompted by the Broadcasting Standards Authority decision to hear a complaint on stablemate broadcaster Sean Plunket's online programme The Platform, the government is moving to abolish the BSA in favour of self-regulation - the brave defenders of free speech seemingly unable to withstand the benign scrutiny of our public defender.
So where to now? Pandering to the prejudices of the ignorant, inflaming racial and religious tensions, and stigmatising the vulnerable and defenceless is already a low bar - even for a glorified Shock Jock touting for trade. Without the BSA there is no bar.
Susan Hall
Oamaru
George St is fine, but mitts off the Octagon
What an excellent article in your newspaper of the George St revamp two years on (ODT 16.5.26) and of all the reflections expressed by the retailers.
It made for compelling reading. I was however troubled by a comment Mayor Barker made that she would like to now set her sights on the Octagon for a similar ‘‘beautification’’.
Such a plan would again cost huge ratepayers’ money and for what real benefit?
Do we always need to keep up with the Joneses? Do we always have to make changes for changes sake?
If the argument is to make our city an attractive place for visitors and tourists alike to visit, can I point out this sector are fly-by-nighters when all said and done.
What about all of us locals here who support the city in so many ways year after year?
I appreciate the revenue tourists bring to the city but many of our population do persist in online shopping. This in itself is causing the death knell in the retailing sector.
It has nothing to do with how our city looks or is presented.
My plea is please stop this tampering with our city. Keep it as is.
Clive McNeill
North East Valley
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Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: letters@odt.co.nz
