One size a poor fit | The Aucklander Letters to the Editor | Local Voices from Auckland, Australia

YOURT LETTERS AND EMAILS TO THE AUCKLANDER

Dogs on beaches
Dog owners on Waiheke Island will be very badly disadvantaged if the Auckland Council's draft dog policy is accepted ("Dog Owners Getting Rough End of Stick", December 8). Waiheke's current beach access rules are Labour Weekend to December 23, 10am-4pm; December 24 to February 1, 10am-6pm; February 2 to Easter Monday, 10am-4pm.

The draft seeks to increase these restrictions dramatically to 10am to 6.30pm between the Saturday of Labour Weekend and March 31. Dog owners will be restricted an extra two and a half hours per day for four months of the year and an extra half-hour per day for six weeks.

On September 23 Linda Nunn of Animal Re-homing attended "Mayor in the Chair" in Browns Bay. She spoke with Len Brown about dogs on beaches. He said he had a lot of influence and would like things to remain as they are in each Local Board area, rather than have "one size fits all". Sadly it appears that "one size fits all" is what is intended. We understand and accept the necessity for standardisation across the boards, however this is taking it too far. Our beaches in November and March are deserted.

We worked hard with the previous Council and obtained the unrestricted all-year-round use of three beaches. This summer past was the first and it worked very well.

The current bylaws work well on the island and the proposed changes do nothing but penalise all dog owners. - Barbara Wilkinson, Waiheke

Reading Jill Parsons' situation in "Dog owners getting rough end of stick" makes me feel thankful to be living in Wellington. Our beach along Petone has dog walking areas on either end of the beach allocated for dog owners and their dogs all year around. My friends all take advantage of this privilege without ever having a problem of any kind. When I say my friends, I mean all the lovely people of all ages that meet up and enjoy watching their beloved pets romping and cooling off in the sea. For a lot of the elderly folks this is the highlight of their day! I do hope Jill gets listened to. - Sandy Fea, Lower Hutt

I thoroughly support Jill Parsons and her stand on behalf of responsible dog owners. Not only are dog owners (and more importantly their dogs) getting a raw deal from extensions to daylight saving, but they are made to feel like second class citizens from an Auckland Council that appears to be distinctly anti-dog. The Council has a narrow, restrictive view on the availability of exercise areas for dogs. An example of this is what has occurred at Monte Cecelia Park. Once this park was widely used by dog owners who delighted in giving their pets some much needed off-lead time and opportunity to socialise with other dogs. Then the Council deemed that Monte Cecelia would be a "premier park" and the park was peppered with "dogs on lead at all times signs", effectively banning dogs to a much over-used area like Big King Reserve. Due to pressure on this park, there have been outbreaks of canine parvo virus.

The question I have asked many times of councillors (and never had a satisfactory response) is why can't there be some accommodation of dog owners and their pets on Council controlled parks and beaches? Specifically, why can't there be designated times such as 6am to 9am and 5pm to 9pm when dogs can exercise off lead all year round? Why does it have to be an either/or choice? Other cities seem to manage such compromises. Melbourne has a beautiful park to rival Cornwall Park where dogs have a designated off lead time. Responsible dog owners respect this arrangement and those that don't are quite rightfully fined. Everyone gets a fair go. In Auckland there are a lot of very angry pet owners out there and they are indeed getting the rough end of the stick! - Steve Alpe, Royal Oak

Lorna Johnston
What a remarkable lady! (Lorna Johnston's Diary, December 15). I found her story so amazing and interesting. Thank you for publishing it.

What a huge trip for a 96 year-old to make. Good on her! She is an inspiration. - Ann Lucas Milford

I am deeply moved by Lorna Johnston's story ("Forgiveness is Lorna's Peace", December 1), and what she said, "I don't hate the Japanese people, it's the culture in their army that makes them crazy."However, it also reminds me of something that has been on my mind for at least three years. I am from China and every year when I visit the Chinese lantern festival in Albert Park, I always see the Japanese Samurai sword performance, as part of the multicultural/martial art performance. At the end of their performance, there is always a lady chopping down the upper part of a straw post using the Samurai sword. As China is a country that sufferred terribly under the Japanese invasion during WWII, almost every Chinese has painful memories of the Chinese civilians beheaded by Japanese soldiers using the Samurai sword. It's just upsetting for people who know its real meaning. I have hoped they would stop this chopping performance for a long time. But I didn't know where to express my thoughts. Now when I read your story, I just think I might have a place to express my worries. - Mingbo Zhou

Rubbish collections
Regarding "Treating the Place Like a Dump", The Aucklander, December 15, it's bad enough now that I have to take my half full recycling bin to the street early on the morning of collection because neighbours fill it with banned rubbish if I put it out the night before with spare capacity. Will I have to get up even earlier to take out the red lidded bin as well and wait for the trucks to arrive so I don't have to pay for the weight of top-ups from the neighbours? There could be a real rubbish war if this system is introduced. Not on! - Coralie van Camp, Remuera

Having to remove accumulated waste under my rental property house in Glen Eden took two large bins and made me realise this is not an uncommon problem.

I propose a complete rethink on rubbish collection . Using the cost effective, efficient bin collection and biennial inorganic, funded by rates system, of the Auckland Council is the ideal, keep it simple operation. The landfill minimisation should start at the recycling station with greater use of R&D; funds to process the maximum recovery of all types of waste. Organic rubbish should go to prepared pits lined with contaminated waste paper to absorb leachate and reticulated for the future use of methane gas for electricity. Thinking outside the square on rubbish could be the answer. - Cliff Jackson, Avondale

Earlier this year I tried to report the dumping of building rubble on an empty residential stand adjacent to my property not once but twice. I had time and date as well as vehicle registration number. Once it was mentioned that it was a residential stand I was told that there was nothing the authorities could do about it. Moral of the story? Don't dump on public ground but find an empty residential stand! - Lorraine Ganter

I would like to add my voice to the protest against the proposed new rubbish collection system. I know our neighbours put rubbish in our bins now so I can see that we will be paying extra for rubbish that is not ours. How does the Council intend to deal with this very relevant senario. Will we have to stand out on the road until the rubbish is collected so we will not have a huge bill at the end of the month? Why change something that is working well - it doesn't matter that there are different collection systems - they work so that is all the matters. - Margaret Jack, Mt Albert

I couldn't agree more with the fact that people will dump more and more rubbish if more user pays comes to fruition.
It takes a long time for adults to reach the age of responsibility to a community.
Many countries suffer from dumped roadside rubbish. Bring joy to our clean green NZ not disgust and vermin. - Vicki

Paper Roads
There is no legal difference, as correctly reported by The Aucklander, between formed and unformed roads ("Drive to Keep Roads Open", December 8). I don't know what the legal status is of the particular road in the Waitakere Ranges that Vivien Dostine would like to ride her horse along. But if she is sure that it is a legal road she has very little to worry about. Instead of allowing herself to be distracted by mayoral or bureaucratic mutterings about surveys and historical research, all she need do, next time she wants to use that road, is simply to take a pair of bolt cutters with her, and destroy the padlock on the gate that illegally blocks her right to pass and repass along the highway.
- Barry Littlewood, St Heliers

No matter how big a city gets, unless there is no urban planning at all there will always be a boundary where the suburbs stop and the countryside begins ("So Sick of Hearing No, December 15). Landowners on the 'wrong' side of that boundary will always complain that they can't subdivide and that their land is 'devalued'. This, of course, is specious nonsense. Planning laws have a reason, and in the case of the unique and precious Waitakere Ranges it was felt that local laws were not strong enough. That was why the Heritage Act was passed. The Vitasovichs are privileged to own a block of land in such a special location. If they don't want to live there, let them sell to someone who does. - Warwick Brown, Mt Eden