LETTERS - 22 July - The Coromandel Informer

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July 22, 2025

The purpose of the Letters to the Editor column is to enable members of the public to express an opinion, about an article or a topic of interest/concern. Please keep them to 200 words or less. These letters do not reflect the editor’s view. The editor reserves the right to edit and decide what is…

SOLUTION TO PARKING FOR BOAT TRAILERS LIES IN MOVING COUNCIL BUILDING

Ongoing discussions about a) problems for parking trailers after launching at the present or b) new Esplanade launching ramp – could be alleviated somewhat by:-

Moving the Council cuilding to one of the under-utilized reserves we have in the area.

This would provide a substantial number of parks close to the ramp. The area might possibly include the vacant section where Admiralty House was situated and the freedom camping area and where the present Council car park area is.

Does the Council building have to be where it is?

How major a mission would it be to move the present building?

Could a park be established that could be used for parking at peak times??

The parking problem is only going to increase in years to come and this could help solve things.

There are several Council Reserves reasonably handy that could be used for a relocated building and Council vehicles.

I have mentioned this possibility to several friends and those that use the ramp and they have encouraged me to pursue the idea.

I appreciate that I am not conversant with the Long-Term Plan for the area and did not manage to make a submission to the launching ramp discussions (this was an afterthought over a wine) but anything might be possible, especially ‘mates rates” for Resource Consent.

Ron Morgan, Whitianga

TO ACHIEVE HIDDEN GEM

Continued from last week

When promoting the Whitianga Sportsground as the hidden gem in our town and to progress further, the complex should be sold to private entrepreneurs or developers. In selling the site the Council could demand that the integrity of the site was maintained and the public reserve zoning be kept.

This would mean that potential buyers would complete the complex including offices, meeting rooms and an assembly hall. Furthermore to make the purchase of the sportsground viable and affordable, I would recommend the following:

1. That land adjacent to the site on the western side be purchased and zoned extra density housing

2. The buildings and sportsground could be rented or

leased to give regular income to the owners

3. To be truly affordable the purchasers in the acquired private land for housing.

Footnote! The articles I have submitted are in no way professional in their writing. The findings are my personal thoughts about a problem in our community.

Noel S. Hewlett, Whitianga

THE REGULATORY STANDARDS BILL
WHY SHOULD WE CARE?

This Bill is a brazen attack on our democracy, pushed by ACT’s small but loud extreme libertarian crew. With only 8.6% of the vote, they’ve manipulated coalition negotiations to force this Bill through, despite nearly everyone opposing it – 99.67%.

ACT then used “urgency” to advance it through Parliament. Out of 150,000 submissions and 16,000 people wanting to speak to the select committee, only 208 got five minutes each. That’s a shocking way to silence Kiwis.

Then you’ve got David Seymour’s “Victim of the Day” trolling stunt, using official Parliament logos to call critics “deranged.” That’s not leadership. That’s playground-level cheap shots from someone meant to represent all of us.

The Bill is not about “individual freedom,” but really lets big corporations put profits ahead of people, environment, and public good.

Seymour claims it’s just a technical measure but then threatens to collapse the whole coalition if it doesn’t pass. No one threatens to nuke a government over something trivial.

A fringe party hijacking democracy isn’t how this country should work. The big question is, will Luxon stand up and stop it before real damage is done? So far, it doesn’t look promising.

Anton Taylor, Whitianga

WE NEED TO ACT SOON RE REVIVAL OF SCALLOPS

I fully support Ross Liggins’ letter in last week’s Informer, where he discussed conditions in the Hauraki Gulf.

Ross talked about the damage being done to the sea floor by mechanical fishing methods, such as dredges and trawls, so upsetting breeding and feeding areas for all sea life. He also talked about the disappearance of scallops from Mercury Bay, something of which I am very aware.

Many will remember the commercial scallop fishers mid-70s and 80s landing thousands of scallops from their dredging of Opito and elsewhere. They were able to continue with this process for many years and each new season saw adequate scallops for all, including recreational divers. This suggests that the scallops were able to sustain a breeding pattern providing takeable scallops, even on the now corrugated seabed.

The scallop fishermen had been using ‘hit and miss’ or memory tactics to carry out dredging but with the development of GPS, they were able to pattern drag the scallop beds with pinpoint accuracy. This left a sea floor surface of grooves and mounds, a perfect sediment trap, totally unsuitable for scallops.

At about this time, clear felling of pine forests was beginning on the Coromandel. For time immemorial, forest erosion had been delivering topsoil to the Whitianga river drainage which then carried it into the ocean. But this material was part of the environmental infrastructure and did not provide any negative impact on the surrounding waters. However, with the pine felling a different sort of material has been generated, described as slash. This slash contains turpins which are poisons thus creating a toxic sedimentation which covers the former scallop beds and prevents scallop rehabilitation.

Similarly, some years ago, scallop beds in the Marlborough Sounds were overfished to the extent that they were closed by Fisheries with the assurance they would be operable again in a few years. But this never happened and research revealed that the toxic sedimentation fed in from the neighbouring pine forests had prevented the recovery. This situation is unlikely to change under present conditions.

We need to find a way of preventing toxic sedimentation getting into the sea, particularly in such an iconic place as the Coromandel Peninsula. To do this, there are many solutions which could be applied, ranging from much tidier, thoughtful methods of felling, to the development of sediment catchment areas or even the planting of native trees such as kahikatea instead of pine. But we need to act soon.

Chuck Edwards, Whitianga

LETTERS – 22 July