SOLLYS

Port squeezing out recreational users

TDC management seems to continue unchanged by undertaking another high cost infrastructural work at Tarakohe to accommodate more mussel harvesters. The changes could lead to recreational users being squeezed from the port.

The recreational berth holders are legitimate users of the port, as specified in the 1995 Act which validated the port reclamation and the land “vested in the Council for development as both a working harbour and recreational area”. Note the specific reference to recreation here. Meetings with council officers and elected members have given assurances that they accept the recreational users are equal stakeholders in any port development. As recreational berth holders we pay our way, create little wear and tear on the infrastructure. I would ask that council seriously look at its obligations under the empowering Act, and ensure that the port remains an affordable and accessible facility for all, and not just led by the aspirations of big business.

I believe I speak for most recreational users in saying we would prefer to have less facilities and lower mooring fees, rather than flash facilities and high fees, and to this end have remained relatively quiet up until now. However, this year our mooring fees have gone up between 12-18 per cent ostensibly to keep up with inflation, ie, up to three times the rate of inflation. At the same time, council has removed access to the one concrete toilet and removed car parking. In other words our fees have increased significantly, and the services reduced significantly. It is an insult that we should accept this blatant ratcheting of fees for no other reason than council wants more money – well that’s the inference as there is no reason given other than inflation, and the increases are well above that.

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Community Light Festival - today!

We have made the call to move the outdoor section of the event to today (Friday) due to the weather: 5.30pm at Junction Green then the Roots Bar afterparty at 7.30pm.

If it rains a lot today we may change the outdoor section back to Saturday so, please keep an eye on the event Facebook page (Community Light Festival) or Arts Council page for updates.

Claire French, GB Arts Council worker The mystery of Tata Beach “Post Henge”

To my bewilderment, on driving into Tata Beach recently I saw someone had erected a double row of very substantial strainer posts in the shape of a semi circle on the reserve by the toilets. A semi stonehenge out of posts?

Using our very best defensive driving skills we just made it around but no way was there a possibility to tow a trailer or, heaven forbid, back a trailer.

I began to wonder where our summer tourists would park their cars and boat trailers. Maybe this year they would arrive on their bicycles from far and wide. Would some of the estuary be reclaimed for parking? Or was the plan for them to park on the main highway?

We had the joy of having these posts around for a few days and then magically they disappeared.

I wonder if this exercise was good use of our ratepayer money. I’m also amazed that a TDC staff member had time to plan such an idea as we’re told on numerous occasions how short staffed and overburdened with work they are.

Martin

Potter, chairman

Tarakohe Marina

Association Port launching charge increases

In response to a letter to the editor last week (GBW, 23/6) of the annual launching fees being raised to $200, please be aware that the Pōhara Boat Club membership fees have been reduced from $125 for family to $50, and from $90 for seniors and juniors to $30. This is to boost membership and save the precious resource we have in the boat club.

The best part is that, along with membership to the beautiful club with all the activities, the annual launching fee by being a club member has been reduced from $150 to $130 annually.

You now can not only save on annual launch fees, but become a member of a fine organisation supporting youth sailing programs and the greater recreational boating community here in Golden Bay. Please pick up your membership forms online and come see what the Pōhara Boat Club has to offer.

Bill Wallis

Power (back) to the people

I wish to empathise with the letter from Wendy Webster (GBW 23/6) . When I arrived in Golden Bay 17 years ago I was told about the town to which she refers.

I gather it was real, and not a myth, like Camelot. So sad I arrived too late and was not able to enjoy it or help it survive.

I accept it has died but could it be exhumed and the joy it offered live again? Could the people take their power back?

Reg Turner

The peddling of Pōhara’s shared path

Based on what I can only describe as extreme arrogance from TDC, are they prepared to pay for medical treatment for small children who might run out of the Pōhara store, directly into the path of cyclists on the “shared” path?

When Cr Hill states that, “A number of people have approached me to ask when the path will be built,” could she tell us what percentage of the area’s residents she has based her support for the path on? Two per cent? Ten per cent? Fifteen per cent? More than that? Fewer than? [Abridged]

Gary Thorpe

Queue jumping

We can now apparently jump the queue of the health system by calling ourselves Māori or Pasifika, according to the Prime Minister and Minister of Health. Myself, as a self-employed electrician and of Scottish blood, have decided to do the important jobs first. When you ring me, tell you are Scottish, and you will go to the top of the list.

Alan McLean

If looking for a project at Tata Beach, there is a 20-year plus puddle along the eastern end of the road reserve, now big enough for penguins to hide in. It gets some gravel occasionally which lasts a week or two.

There is also a very unsafe part of the road when coming off Petersen Road onto Peninsula Road, a tree is obstructing the line of vision to oncoming traffic.

Rose Windle

War is a racket

Precisely half of the letters in last week’s GB Weekly (23/6) expressed support for Ukraine’s stance in their armed conflict with Russia. Whilst frequent mention was made of Russian propaganda, not a word was spoken about the US/NATO and mainstream NZ propaganda that seems to have convinced your correspondents that the west is right and the east is wrong.

At the time of his death, Major General Smedley Darlington Butler was the most decorated Marine in US history. In 1935, he wrote the exposé War Is a Racket, a trenchant condemnation of the profit motive behind warfare. The November 1935 issue of the socialist magazine Common Sense quoted him saying “I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer; a gangster for capitalism”.

In May this year the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft published their 41st Brief, which looked at the role of “think tanks” and concluded “The analysis finds that the vast majority of media mentions of think tanks in articles about US arms and the Ukraine war are from think tanks whose funders profit from US military spending and arms sales…”. At the time of its publication, American arms manufacturers had been gifted $48,700,000,000 of US taxpayers’ money to help Ukraine fight Russia.

As Smedley Butler said, war is an extremely lucrative racket.

Bruce Collings

Letters To The Editor

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