The Press letters to the editor: Wednesday March 5
Wednesday, 5 March 2025
Irksome intersection upgrade
Whoever signed off on the upgrades to the Aldwins Rd and Ferry Rd intersection has perfected how not to do it.
At whatever huge cost it was to build, it is worse for all users, much less efficient with features that cannot be defended in the name of safety and will have to be redone at our cost again.
We need to stop this immediately. It’s all right to have your little road ideas in the central city. We can all avoid the area and we all do, but when you are actively making it more difficult to navigate the rest of the city and doubling travel times you need to understand that this costs everyone money.
Speed humps on the exits of traffic lights are nothing but dangerous for following road users and the stupidest idea anyone has ever had.
You also don't need them on entry to an intersection. That is actually what traffic lights are for.
Daniel S McCarthy, Sockburn
Cost of waste
ECan should be commended for doing its job, practising sustainability! A Deloitte report criticised it for a $1.2 million spend on heritage buildings (The Press, March 1).
Did Deloitte assess the environmental effects and values of retaining heritage versus the carbon footprint of demolition? Seemingly not. Do we need more rubble in our landfill? No.
The Lawrie & Wilson Auctioneers Building is a splendid example of heritage adaptive reuse. The Christchurch City Council decided in 1996 to strengthen and restore it and since then it has operated successfully.
The retention of the Odeon Theatre facade and front area, in my view, coupled with a sound commercial development behind it, reduces the cost of environmental waste and saves a glorious heritage facade and marble staircase.
As chair of Christchurch Heritage Ltd our team is proud to have saved Shand’s, the oldest timber building in the central city and the former Trinity Church on the corner of Worcester and Manchester streets. Trinity is a good example of what Deloitte wrote in its executive summary: “It is essential there is an understanding of what good practice looks like, along with the appropriate commercial acumen to drive the right project outcomes.”
Dame Anna Crighton, Christchurch Central
Liquor laws
Well said and “hear, hear!” to Flip Grater’s piece The ill-conceived, illogical liquor laws strangling the hospo industry (March 3).
Her example of opened bottles of wine needing to be consumed on-prem, and how that conflicts with a goal to make sure people don't drive under the influence, was particularly salient. To add to this, surely the sort of public infrastructure that makes it extremely easy to avoid getting behind the wheel of a vehicle would be ideal - that is to say, robust, reliable, and safe public transit systems.
Local Alcohol Policies that introduce one-way-door policies for venues hugely damage the local music scene. A vibrant, accessible, varied nightlife is not served well by adding more persnickety rules for venues.
As the council is considering changes to decibel limits in the city centre, the LAP discussion is a reminder that policies and bylaws overlap enormously and can have far- reaching, deleterious consequences. Kudos to Cr Moore for bringing some of these issues to the council table - strange it has to come all the way from Halswell, but it is welcome.
Tom Roud, St Martins [abridged]
Why so long?
I totally agree with the Sunny Kaushal article Changes needed to fight retail crime (March 4). Why it has taken so long to take this sort of action is amazing.
Tony Rondel, Rolleston
US a mercenary
“A man is known by the company he keeps” (Aesop), as with countries. The United States voted, along with Russia and North Korea, against a European-drafted resolution condemning Moscow’s war on Ukraine and supporting Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
And then, suited apparatchiks trying to delegitimise President Zelenskyy in the White House.
Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in 1994. In exchange, the US, UK and Russia guaranteed its security in the Budapest Memorandum.
Something to remember in reference to Nato, Aukus etc is that the US has made itself little more than a mercenary that will turn on you if the price is right.
Lest we forget, Donald Trump was impeached in his previous term for denying aid to Ukraine, allegedly to force Zelenskyy to launch an investigation into Hunter Biden.
Barring a massive rare earth mineral find in New Zealand, we cannot rely on the US for anything beyond putting itself first.
Darren A Saunders, Waltham [abridged]
An appealing sound
In the Bible, the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians, referring to the end of the world, when the dead shall be raised, says this will happen at “the last trump” (1 Corinthians 15:52).
None of us is in a hurry for the actual event to take place, but “the last trump” does sound appealing at present.
Vic Smith, Halswell