Letters, Jun 9
Pedestrian crossing
Pedestrians will cross against the lights with or without the islands.As Andy says the lights are heavily biased towards cars. Pedestrians wait ages for a legal crossing, and end up standing on an overcrowded, miserably gusty and wet corner, in a rush for the movies or bus or just to get away from the 4-6 lanes of traffic; so no wonder people jaywalk. Taranaki, Cambridge/Kent, Vivian, Ghuznee, Karo, and the roads around our waterfront are all barriers to a nice walking experience.
Tom Robinson, Wellington
Walking and cycling
It’s a no brainer that slower driving means fewer and less severe accidents. But the Council is evidently misguided over the 30kmh zones being rolled out across Wellington.
They will not achieve their stated objectives of improving pedestrian safety and encouraging walking and cycling. To suggest that more people will walk and cycle because of a 30kmh speed limit on short lengths of road (170m in the case of Thorndon) is simply nonsense. I invite councillors to walk and cycle through these tiny stretches of road and see if they are ‘encouraged’ to walk or cycle.
If we look to the UK and US we see evidence of increased costs and safety risks of patchworks of variable speed limits and multiple signage. Confusion over speed limits will increase and with it speeding infringements. That Council imposes an apparent stealth tax and costly intrusive signage in an already cluttered urban environment during a recession is bizarre.
Instead, Council should cheaply improve safety by stopping parking by pedestrian crossings so drivers and waiting pedestrians can actually see each other. It could then get on with some meaningful actions that get us out of our cars and onto public transport, motorbikes, bicycles and walking.
James Brown, Wellington.
More than balls
Read “According to Doyle” and the Law Commision Report on Liquor and you can see the problems bigger than just school kids and balls. The Law Commission Report gives us good guideline to finally dealing with alcohol. What interesting is the Commission’s calculation that we would have $72M to play with as a nation, if our politicians had the balls (other sort!) to act. They missed that one in the budget!!
John H, Wellington.
City accommodation
We need a few thousand more people like G-M Brandreth Wills. Apathy, or haste to “get on board the rising market”, on the part of first home buyers and those starting families, only contributes to the severity of the eventual crash when property prices inflate out of touch with reality and people have stretched themselves unwisely in their mortgage borrowing. People facing the biggest financial decision of their life owe it to themselves to get better informed and then get angry with the right people.
Mr Wills should be angry with the local councils. It is anti-sprawl policies that enable a few wealthy people to corner the market in new suburban land, and hike the prices. It is not that house prices have doubled in ten years, it is that land prices have gone up 1,000% and in places, sections are now worth several times as much as the houses on them. These land bubbles have burst calamitously in California, Florida, Ireland, England, Greece, and Spain, so far.
While councils wish people to live at higher densities closer to work, Mr Wills rightly notes that the exact opposite result occurs as the council’s own policies eliminate all previously affordable options for home buyers, and the least affordable of all are the inner city homes. Ironically, the few cities left in the world where low income people still can afford to live close to the inner city, are ones like Dallas, Houston, and Atlanta, where they do not have anti-urban-sprawl policies and their land has remained cheap.
Green urban planning theorists can rage all they like, but they have imposed untold financial grief on millions of people to no useful end whatsoever.
Philip G. Hayward, Lower Hutt.
Gorse and natives
J Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalf are doing good work if they plant natives, but bad work if they pull gorse out.
Gorse, not an indigenous plant, has become our best friend. It is a very effective shade cover that natives need to propagate.
There are some spectacular examples of how we can use gorse to regenerate native forest, a good local example being the Rimutaka hill road area, once devoid of bush and covered with gorse, but now exploding into young rain forest as the natives push out of the gullies and kill the gorse off after it has done its valuable work. Likewise the Hutt Valley hills.
The best way to get rid of gorse is to leave it alone.
It is generally not necessary to manually plant natives unless we are in a hurry, and the protection of future native forest might best be done by preventing gorse fires.
Gary Lewis, Lower Hutt, abridged.
Bad plumbing, May 26
It wasn’t just bad plumbing it was absolutely appalling, ‘the worst ever uncovered’, that’s what the shower manufacturer stated as three brand new showers had to be ripped out, ordered by the Wellington City Council inspector in writing. The Council complaint to the Board correctly advised that this work did not meet the Building Code, as with a number of other serious issues, again recorded in writing by Council, and all subsequently dismissed by the Plumbers Board inspector. The “ Bad Plumbing” article of May 26 was entirely accurate bar a number of statements from the Plumbers Board spokesman Kern U’ren. U’ren commented that plumbing is not an immediate problem. This statement is at odds with the Boards own reports. There are far more complaints against plumbers than either Drainlayers or Gasfitters. But despite the high number of formal written complaints, the Plumbing respondents are never bought before a disciplinary hearing. Complaints against these registered and licenced plumbers appear to fall in a convenient hole due to either a “ lack of jurisdiction” or the finding of “ no substance”, as was reported by the Board for instance in 2008 and 2009. In the year ending March 2007 many gasfitters appeared before the Board, but…not one plumber. They all operate under the same Act with the Board able to take any appropriate action, again contrary to Mr U’rens comments. The cost to hold a disciplinary meeting can be significant i.e. $10,000 to $25,000, not the $5 - $10k that Mr U’ren stated. This information is in fact contained on the Boards own website. By the “ Independent Investigator “ simply finding “ no substance “ then the Plumbers Board simply write that they will take “ no further action”. When I disagreed with those findings and sought information from the Board as to rights of appeal, I was told by the Board’s complaints manager, a lawyer, that I had no such rights.
The plumber concerned had unlicensed staff doing unsupervised and banned installations breaching Section 42 and 50 of the 1976 Act in a number of areas. Prosecution and disciplinary accountability are the Board’s sole responsibility. The Board Chairperson, Ms Hazel Armstrong was complained to on several occasions in writing. She has not responded.
Paul Grant, name and address supplied, abridged.
Good job
I would like to pass on to you some positive feedback regarding the young lad at the Railway Station. He is there every Wednesday afternoon, bright and bubbly and making a real effort to hand the Capital Times to as many people as possible. I have seen a number of other people over the years who have not had his passion, who have just stood there like stuffed dummies, and I have missed out on something to read in the train and on my way home. So, thank you to the young man, I enjoy this paper, and he makes a point that I get it.
Sandra Jones, Wellington.
Pedestrians will cross against the lights with or without the islands.As Andy says the lights are heavily biased towards cars. Pedestrians wait ages for a legal crossing, and end up standing on an overcrowded, miserably gusty and wet corner, in a rush for the movies or bus or just to get away from the 4-6 lanes of traffic; so no wonder people jaywalk. Taranaki, Cambridge/Kent, Vivian, Ghuznee, Karo, and the roads around our waterfront are all barriers to a nice walking experience.
Tom Robinson, Wellington
Walking and cycling
It’s a no brainer that slower driving means fewer and less severe accidents. But the Council is evidently misguided over the 30kmh zones being rolled out across Wellington.
They will not achieve their stated objectives of improving pedestrian safety and encouraging walking and cycling. To suggest that more people will walk and cycle because of a 30kmh speed limit on short lengths of road (170m in the case of Thorndon) is simply nonsense. I invite councillors to walk and cycle through these tiny stretches of road and see if they are ‘encouraged’ to walk or cycle.
If we look to the UK and US we see evidence of increased costs and safety risks of patchworks of variable speed limits and multiple signage. Confusion over speed limits will increase and with it speeding infringements. That Council imposes an apparent stealth tax and costly intrusive signage in an already cluttered urban environment during a recession is bizarre.
Instead, Council should cheaply improve safety by stopping parking by pedestrian crossings so drivers and waiting pedestrians can actually see each other. It could then get on with some meaningful actions that get us out of our cars and onto public transport, motorbikes, bicycles and walking.
James Brown, Wellington.
More than balls
Read “According to Doyle” and the Law Commision Report on Liquor and you can see the problems bigger than just school kids and balls. The Law Commission Report gives us good guideline to finally dealing with alcohol. What interesting is the Commission’s calculation that we would have $72M to play with as a nation, if our politicians had the balls (other sort!) to act. They missed that one in the budget!!
John H, Wellington.
City accommodation
We need a few thousand more people like G-M Brandreth Wills. Apathy, or haste to “get on board the rising market”, on the part of first home buyers and those starting families, only contributes to the severity of the eventual crash when property prices inflate out of touch with reality and people have stretched themselves unwisely in their mortgage borrowing. People facing the biggest financial decision of their life owe it to themselves to get better informed and then get angry with the right people.
Mr Wills should be angry with the local councils. It is anti-sprawl policies that enable a few wealthy people to corner the market in new suburban land, and hike the prices. It is not that house prices have doubled in ten years, it is that land prices have gone up 1,000% and in places, sections are now worth several times as much as the houses on them. These land bubbles have burst calamitously in California, Florida, Ireland, England, Greece, and Spain, so far.
While councils wish people to live at higher densities closer to work, Mr Wills rightly notes that the exact opposite result occurs as the council’s own policies eliminate all previously affordable options for home buyers, and the least affordable of all are the inner city homes. Ironically, the few cities left in the world where low income people still can afford to live close to the inner city, are ones like Dallas, Houston, and Atlanta, where they do not have anti-urban-sprawl policies and their land has remained cheap.
Green urban planning theorists can rage all they like, but they have imposed untold financial grief on millions of people to no useful end whatsoever.
Philip G. Hayward, Lower Hutt.
Gorse and natives
J Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalf are doing good work if they plant natives, but bad work if they pull gorse out.
Gorse, not an indigenous plant, has become our best friend. It is a very effective shade cover that natives need to propagate.
There are some spectacular examples of how we can use gorse to regenerate native forest, a good local example being the Rimutaka hill road area, once devoid of bush and covered with gorse, but now exploding into young rain forest as the natives push out of the gullies and kill the gorse off after it has done its valuable work. Likewise the Hutt Valley hills.
The best way to get rid of gorse is to leave it alone.
It is generally not necessary to manually plant natives unless we are in a hurry, and the protection of future native forest might best be done by preventing gorse fires.
Gary Lewis, Lower Hutt, abridged.
Bad plumbing, May 26
It wasn’t just bad plumbing it was absolutely appalling, ‘the worst ever uncovered’, that’s what the shower manufacturer stated as three brand new showers had to be ripped out, ordered by the Wellington City Council inspector in writing. The Council complaint to the Board correctly advised that this work did not meet the Building Code, as with a number of other serious issues, again recorded in writing by Council, and all subsequently dismissed by the Plumbers Board inspector. The “ Bad Plumbing” article of May 26 was entirely accurate bar a number of statements from the Plumbers Board spokesman Kern U’ren. U’ren commented that plumbing is not an immediate problem. This statement is at odds with the Boards own reports. There are far more complaints against plumbers than either Drainlayers or Gasfitters. But despite the high number of formal written complaints, the Plumbing respondents are never bought before a disciplinary hearing. Complaints against these registered and licenced plumbers appear to fall in a convenient hole due to either a “ lack of jurisdiction” or the finding of “ no substance”, as was reported by the Board for instance in 2008 and 2009. In the year ending March 2007 many gasfitters appeared before the Board, but…not one plumber. They all operate under the same Act with the Board able to take any appropriate action, again contrary to Mr U’rens comments. The cost to hold a disciplinary meeting can be significant i.e. $10,000 to $25,000, not the $5 - $10k that Mr U’ren stated. This information is in fact contained on the Boards own website. By the “ Independent Investigator “ simply finding “ no substance “ then the Plumbers Board simply write that they will take “ no further action”. When I disagreed with those findings and sought information from the Board as to rights of appeal, I was told by the Board’s complaints manager, a lawyer, that I had no such rights.
The plumber concerned had unlicensed staff doing unsupervised and banned installations breaching Section 42 and 50 of the 1976 Act in a number of areas. Prosecution and disciplinary accountability are the Board’s sole responsibility. The Board Chairperson, Ms Hazel Armstrong was complained to on several occasions in writing. She has not responded.
Paul Grant, name and address supplied, abridged.
Good job
I would like to pass on to you some positive feedback regarding the young lad at the Railway Station. He is there every Wednesday afternoon, bright and bubbly and making a real effort to hand the Capital Times to as many people as possible. I have seen a number of other people over the years who have not had his passion, who have just stood there like stuffed dummies, and I have missed out on something to read in the train and on my way home. So, thank you to the young man, I enjoy this paper, and he makes a point that I get it.
Sandra Jones, Wellington.
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