Cabs in car parks
I wish to endorse one of your writers about the over numbered amount of Taxis around the city using up the public car parking spaces while waiting for Taxi Stands to free up.
I work on the Terrace and regularly observe at least 6 Cabs from Wellington Star, Amalgamated, and Kiwi Cabs using parks waiting on a rotating basis to use 2 parks outside 90 The Terrace. One regularly parks on a broken yellow line outside the driveway of where I work. When a cab moves and they race to get on the rank all sorts of bad manoeuvres happen.
City Council Parking Wardens have little luck as soon as they are seen the cabs move away or attempt to put money into the meters, to avoid losing a place and hopefully a fare. They suffer regular abuse and bad language for trying to do their job. I have received the fingers from one cab driver from a company because I stand at the front of our building during the day, and he thinks I may have a link to the council, as quite often when I appear the warden may make a walk past. 
Trevor Guilbert, Strathmore (abridged).

Those #*x! taxis
Those taxis which use up all the metered spaces around their ranks make me swear too.
It’s hard enough to park round town without having those people using the spaces.  
A taxi moves on and is replaced by another when a parking warden comes,  or they pay for the space and ease their queue along through it until they can get up to the rank.
It’s not in the spirit of the thing.  Why don’t they cruise for a bit of business instead of cluttering up the streets, or go home for a cup of tea until it gets busier?
H. Adams, Mt Victoria.

Manners Mall
Your article Manners Mall matters – what’s happening (June 9 – 15) contained some information that wasn’t entirely correct.
Creating the new shared space in lower Cuba Street is a high priority. We expect the new bus route to be operational by Christmas and work to start on developing the new shared space early next year. The plan is for this area to be complete before Rugby World Cup 2011.
The article said lower Cuba would be a shared space for “cars and buses”. That’s not correct – it will be a shared space for people and slow-moving vehicles, where pedestrians will have priority.  
Buses will no longer use Cuba Street. They’ll be using the new, more direct Manners Street route instead while lower Cuba will be a level area – free of the kerbs that exist at the moment – with seating, some paved areas, parking spaces and lots of trees. This will effectively extend Cuba Mall and create a clearer pedestrian connection from Cuba Mall to Civic Square and the waterfront.  
The new section of Manners Street – where the mall is at the moment – will continue to be a major pedestrian thoroughfare too, with wide paved footpaths on either side.  
Stavros Michael, Infrastructure Director, Wellington City Council.

Evil city development
Philip Hayward, in his response to my letter, is mostly correct, but I cannot be angry with local councils, it’s not my style. I have loved this City for forty years, but in the last decade there has been a significant move, mostly promoted by greed, away from a city for the many towards an environment that satisfies only the few. Ten years ago Aucklanders were waking up to the evils (and evils they are) of the style of development that we are now experiencing in Wellington. It simply staggers me that we do not appear to be able to learn from these misguided planning decisions that have ruined major cities around world. As for Green policies? Well they have long since been sold to the zealots. There is no hope there.
Graham-Michael Brandreth Wills, Wellington (abridged).

Dolores Ibarruri
I was interested in reading Martin Doyle on Nancy Wake that he made mention of Dolores Ibarruri the Spanish writer and politician known during the Spanish Civil War as “La Pasionaria”. She made in her speeches to the people fighting the fascist Franco, the famous quote, “It’s better to die on your feet than to live on your knees”. Martin also quoted her “No pasaran!”, but made no mention of her having to flee to the Soviet Union in 1939 and her return to Spain in 1977, when at the age of 81, she was re-elected to the General Assembly. She was rightly called by those fighting for the democrat republic the “Passion flower”.
R.O. Hare, Lower Hutt.

Nancy Wake
Thank you for publishing vide According to Doyle, a timely reminder of the extraordinary contribution to humanity made by Nancy Wake aka the white mouse in fighting the criminal Nazis during WW2, with breathtaking courage.
But why have successive New Zealand governments continued to ignore her, whilst awarding Knighthoods to second hand property dealers and reformists with alternative methods for counting beans?
More to the point, why has the government invariably reacted to this often asked question, with a wall of silence?
The wonderful lady is evidently now 97 years old and I guess too late to honour her.  What a shame (literally).
Gary Lewis, Lower Hutt.

Gorse
Restoration of an indigenous ecosystem in an urban site should be carefully planned so as to replicate as closely as possible, the ecosystem which existed on the site as far back as earliest records indicate.  
In “Gorse and natives” (9 June), Gary Lewis makes good points about the value of gorse as a nurse plant for native species - we agree with this in general. However, given the very limited native seed source on Miramar Peninsula, (even in Council reserves), we believe the resultant ecosystem would be of very limited species diversity.    
There are two other problems with gorse which should be considered: its extreme flammability, and the fact that its seeds are known to remain viable for at least forty years.   
At Manawa Karioi project, which began c. 1980, at Tapu Te Ranga marae, Island Bay,  the strategy to deal with dense gorse was to cut 1-metre-wide access lines through it, across the slopes. Then, every few metres, tiny clearings were cut on the uphill side, where locally-appropriate, eco-sourced native plants were planted to supplement the native seedlings already growing in the deep humus created by the gorse  The result was that before long, the native plants overtopped the gorse, which has since died out. The range of native species is being increased as wind and birds bring native seeds, and by under-planting the developing  forest with native canopy tree species such as those growing naturally in nearby Tawatawa Reserve.
If this technique were to be applied to the slopes above Cobham Drive/Calabar Road roundabout, Wellingtonians and visitors will be able to witness and enjoy this absolutely, positively wonderful transformation happening, year by year.  
Barbara Mitcalfe and J Chris Horne, Kelburn and Northland.