YouSay Chambers closed

This is an ex-pigeon ...

Tomarata damage

Not content with damaging the Tomarata Lakes unique beauty with the roaring engines of jet skis in summer, four wheel drive petrolheads also like to have their “fun” in winter by churning the picnic areas into mud wallows.

I have long given up trying to analyse the behaviours of many of my fellow New Zealanders, who see public spaces as destinations for vandalism and locations where dangerous dogs have the same right to roam around small children.

All of these behaviours have been commonplace at Tomarata Lake reserve as they have in other Rodney locations for many years.

My solution is to prohibit motor vehicles from entering reserves such as Tomarata Lake.

With the exception, as is the case elsewhere, for boat owners to launch and then park in an authorised carpark, off the reserve. People who behave toward the scant public facilities available to us in this way are an embarrassment both to our community and, as New Zealanders, to us all.

Brent Morrissey, Te Arai

The door has closed on an era of local government in Rodney. A meeting of the Hibiscus and Bays Local Board last month marked the final day for the council chambers in Orewa. The complex was built in 1977 by Rodney County Council, when Sir Gordon Mason was mayor. The county merged with the Helensville Borough Council in 1989 to become Rodney District Council, which was subsequently amalgamated into Auckland Council in November 2010. The building, which hosted countless debates, protests and community presentations, is destined to become a business park.