LETTERS & EMAILS
WASTE. A WAY FORWARD. We are still putting our waste into the ground. We have Hampton Downs landfill and the new Dome Valley landfill due to open in the near future. Even though we are aware of contamination and leaching, we still ‘truck it, dump it and cover it’. Time to stop this. Time to own the issue and not just contract it out and hope for the best. One option - the Government should buy back the Huntly power station from Genesis Energy and turn it into a rubbish incineration plant. Yes, there would be some CO’s into the atmosphere, but would it be any more than the gases leaching out of landfills? Probably not. Rubbish would be sent to Huntly by train in sealed carriages and be processed prior to incineration, removing the hundreds of truck journeys a week. Local waste stations could be located alongside current rail lines and taken to Huntly at night. Rubbish could be shipped from all over the North Island – from Hamilton, Tauranga, Palmerston North, Wellington and even from the Hawkes Bay. Bio security could be managed by large secure bins where the waste is stored prior to incineration and a water filtration plant built to ensure the Waikato river is not contaminated. Proper recycling could be set up and help offset the costs. Ian McTavish, Herne Bay CALL TO ACTION Fake and flawed consultation is endemic throughout Auckland Council, Local Boards and the Council Controlled Organisations. Chair of the Waitemata Local Board, Richard Northey, bluntly refused to consider postponing the vote on the new Western Springs Plan despite community objections. A public meeting to discuss the new plan was cancelled because of Lockdown, but this made no difference to the Waitemata Local Board’s intention to: 1. Lower the lake level 2. Demolish the double humped bridge 3. Turn the Lake into a “Wet Land,” instead of managing the existing weir to keep the spring water fresh and moving 4. Widen the paths so that cyclists clash with toddlers, prams and the elderly 5. Transform the park into an events venue They approved all these points except the demolition of the iconic double hump bridge at this time. The controversial plan to put a new path through the forest behind the Lake and Zoo was held over until September. Mainly because it will require the clear felling of 217 healthy Monetary pines which in turn will ruin the 70+ year old regenerating native forest beneath. We believe that when people who love this park realise the huge fiscal cost and environmental impact, they too will be motivated to take Direct Action by joining an occupation to preserve the park. Lisa Prager, Westmere VICTORY - BRIDGE SAVED The Waitemata- Local Board voted on 18 August to adopt the ‘Western Springs Lakeside Plan’ and excluded from that the replacement of the much loved ‘double hump bridge’ where park goers enjoy a close encounter with native eel. Auckland Council wanted to replace the bridge for disabled access and the ‘people jam’ caused during the two days of Pasifika each year.
Local residents have seen an electric wheel chair racing across it, just like kids bikes do when they can find the bridge free of observers. And a resident in a wheel chair says that people are more than happy to help him cross or there’s another way around. Legal accessibility would say this bridge was too steep, if there wasn’t another way to go around the park. Next step is to make it an historic structure and hopefully find a patron to fund an additional ‘triple hump bridge’ either side for more learning and the love of native eels. Most of the ‘Plan’ could have been replaced with a maintenance schedule that would have saved taxpayer revenue. 1. Forest maintenance - removal of a few dead branches to ensure the track is safe - instead of removal of canopy of 218 trees. (WLB vote on this in September) 2. Lake water quality - repair the lake flushing system that has been broken for about 5 years and floating riparian planting - instead of lowering the lake level, reducing its size, planting around the edges obscuring view of the water and birds potentially turning it into a ‘wetland’. 3. Path repairs - instead of replacement with wider paths for large truck access. 4. Bridges - minor repairs including handrails damaged in 2018 storm instead of replacement with wider bridges for large truck access. Western Springs Lakeside Park - Te Wai Orea - Water of Eel is a unique oasis in the middle of a busy city where the entertainment is the wildlife, nature and tranquility, and a safe place for families and children in particular. Let’s keep it that way. Gael Baldock, Community Advocate, Westmere Western Springs Lakeside Park The Waitemata- Local Board has recently been spending its time and our money discussing changing the well-functioning and popular Western Springs Park and surrounding the lake. Expensive consultants have advised on horticulture, silviculture, water quality, birds and access for large vehicles to bring in paraphernalia for the Pacifika Festival. Cyclists have been lobbying for wider paths, presumably because they feel entitled to whizz at dangerous speed through the toddlers and prams of family groups. I went down on a blustery Tuesday to have a look, in the light of these proposals, with my partner and her daughter, a two year old on a scooter and a six year old on her new bike (no training wheels). We all had a good time. There has been a great reduction in ‘bird poo’, and there were lots of friendly faces and eyes above masks, cygnets (only one per mating couple, strange), ducks, and eels, etc. The water was very clear, no smells, no problems at all. As usual I was pushed over the ‘humpy bridge’ by my partner as it’s too steep for my wheelchair, and after all, I am an aging paraplegic and am always offered help from strangers if I am alone or access is daunting. This was an easy, enjoyable outing for a group of five aged 2-73 with varying abilities. So why is the board consulting? Why the expense? Where’s the money coming from? Hasn’t the board got something better to do with its time, or more ominously, does it have too much time, and rate-payers’ money, to spend on that great farce ‘change for its own sake’? Meanwhile, in the last 25 years my rates have gone up from about $1200.00 to $10,000.00, while the size of my section has decreased by 20%. (No major improvements in this time). And Council warns us it is teetering through massive debt towards insolvency. William Gruar, Westmere CONTINUED P19
Opinions expressed in Ponsonby News are not always the opinion of Alchemy Media Limited & Ponsonby News.
10 PONSONBY NEWS+ September 2020
PUBLISHED FIRST FRIDAY EACH MONTH (except January)
