Letters to the editor

 

More trash talk
In response to Margaret's "disgusted with trash" in the letters to the editor, June 8 edition. 

The "trash" you write about was gorse and sand moved off the common boundary by the land owner, not Whangarei motorcycle club as you accuse. He was finding the boundary peg in all the gorse which lines the boundary. Maybe this wouldn't have happened if the gorse was sprayed once in a while on your side of the fence.

The fence you also accuse us of breaking has been cut by persons unknown so that they can get unauthorised access from the DOC road to ride our track. We have repaired this at our own cost numerous times and will begrudgingly continue to do so.

If you had of come and talked to us on the day before making these accusations it would have been appreciated, instead of hiding in the gorse taking photos of us (yes we saw you). Or Maybe next time you can just phone us instead of wasting this paper’s time and space.

Matt Gunson
MX coordinator
Whangarei MCC


Fire rule just a smokescreen?
Does Mangawhai produce more carbon emissions per capita than any other place in New Zealand?

Does the Kaipara District Council or the Northland Regional Council monitor air pollution in Mangawhai?

There are many days in Mangawhai when the air quality appears to be worse than that in Auckland. You can see it, smell it, and taste it on your mouth and in the drinking water.

It is interesting that the Mangawhai Focus warns against burning painted and treated timber in home wood burners and hearths. Residents, contractors, farmers, property developers burn that sort of material, along with a large quantity of plant material, out in the open, day in and day out, in and around Mangawhai.

For two years now, Te Uri o Hau have been burning vegetation and more toxic material at the Te Arai development. They are under Auckland jurisdiction. 

Now, across the estuary at Moir Point, under the Kaipara District Council/Northland Regional Council regimes, vegetation scraped off the Point is being burnt every day with accelerant being used to reignite the bonfires each morning.

And the mangroves that are being ripped out around the estuary are permitted to be burnt.

In ten to 15 years might we expect to see a spike in the rates of certain sorts of cancer, among those who are today attending playschool, kindergarten, and primary school in polluted Mangawhai?

Willim Moritz
Auckland/Mangawhai


Divide and rule by commissioners
On 4 March 2015, a petition signed by 1306 Kaipara residents was submitted to Associate Minister for Local Government, Hon. Louise Upston asking that the term of the Kaipara District Council Commissioners be extended until 2016 ostensibly 'to provide stability' 'while major legal issues are pending' - until what they probably hoped was going to be 'rationalisation' under the Northland Unitary Authority. The petition also stated that 'the cost of an election is a waste of ratepayer funds'. 

On 9 June 2015 the Local Government Commission announced it was not going to proceed with draft plans for the Northland Unitary Authority. Dale Ofsoske of Elections Services, who run Kaipara's elections, provided the following quantification of costs: Total gross cost, including for the Northland Regional Council and Northland District Health Board: $91,325 divided by 13,750 electors (in the Kaiapara District) = $6.64 per elector. Nett Cost: Kaipara District Council only $49,000 divided by 13,750 electors (ratepayers and residents over 18 years) = $3.56 per elector. 

Meanwhile 200 Mangawhai ratepayers have been issued with summonses to appear in the District Court to be sued for the rates they have been withholding in protest against our rates being used to repay $57million that was borrowed without our being consulted and without our consent, ie. illegally, regardless of what that fascist piece of legislation the Kaipara Validation of Rates and Other Matters Bill says. This $3,300 per day Commission has, to 'ensure that the organisation is in good financial shape', directed banks to raid the accounts of 220 striking ratepayers ($5,400 in my own case) to recover the withheld funds, despite Section 60 of the Local Government Act stating we are protected as long as the dispute is subject to judicial review which it still is and will be until our hearing in the Court of Appeal on August 25, 2015. 

These commissioners have taken over our compliant and complicit media with their weaselese and specious legal point-scoring techniques to manufacture our consent by propagandising, disinforming and distracting the citizenry and have divided and are now ruling our community. This unprecedented chicanery has to be stopped. New Zealanders live in a hard-fought-and won democracy and we, the people of the Kaipara District deserve to enjoy the right to govern ourselves. 

It is disappointing that so many among us find it too bothersome to assert their rights and are even defending these bullies who have been imposed upon our community to ensure the continuation of the stripping of our common wealth

(the $57 million) and the protection of the liable parties, while those who we've elected as our representatives, the Mangawhai Ratepayers and Residents Association, whose natural role is to work for our best interests, are being painted as the villain. It's high time we started talking about the formation of the Mangawhai District Council. 

The timetable for the 17 October 2015 Kaipara District Council General Election is still viewable on the KDC website.

Alan Preston
Mangawhai