Kihikihi Cycleway
Earlier this year, I requested information regarding the Te Ara Rimu Kihikihi Pathway project. Of interest was the consultation with the community. The committee report dated August 29, 2023, highlighted that of the 149 submissions received, 106 were against and 42 were in favour of the proposed project.
As with any project, and more importantly ratepayer and taxpayer funded projects, it is important to review the changes to ensure they have met the desired outcome. When asked whether a review would take place, the council advised “a monitoring and evaluation report is under preparation for this project. This will cover a range of objectives sought by the project including uptake of walking and cycling, change in travel patterns and speeds and feedback from residents and road users. This report will be published on council’s website when complete mid-2025”.
Kihikihi Cycleway
When asked how the Council would gather such feedback, the response was “council is receiving feedback through customer interactions, enquiries and comments through our customer services team. This feedback is being received via email, phone calls and social media.”
With such an impactful project, feedback should be sought more formally and be transparent. However, since council stated that feedback via social media was one of its platforms for gaining such feedback, I ran a poll on the Kihikihi Community Facebook page. At time of writing, 482 votes were cast. The split was 442 not happy with the changes with 40 happy. That is a 92 per cent to 8 per cent split of unhappy customers. Perhaps the change from a shared pathway to what has eventuated has something to do with this but suggests to me that this community is not being listened to, and that council has some work to do on rectifying this matter.
Gina Kriletich
Parawera
Letters to Editor
More on cats
A few weeks ago, there was an opportunity given by volunteer veterinarians to have 50 cats either spayed or neutered. This was to be held in Kihikihi. The opportunity was offered by Paws4life.
Due to a complaint, this event was cancelled but 50 applicants were invited to go to Hamilton 10 days later. As I understand it correctly about 150 people applied to help them take care of their cats. Only the first 50 could go. I applaud Paws4life for taking this initiative as we all know there is an issue with stray, non-treated cats in Kihikihi.
This service was offered for free, but I know nothing is for free, the vets had to give up their time. I sincerely hope that this event can happen again, perhaps with the help of some local vets so more cats can be spayed/neutered. Surely this would be a good idea. So, again, many thanks from, I would expect, quite a few cat owners for the initiative and results.
Bernard Westerbaan
Kihikihi
Fluoride misinformation
I’m wanting to complain to you about giving airtime about the stupidity of anti-fluoridation. Fluoridation of water has been proved to be excellent for public health for over 70 years and giving airtime to people who refuse to adhere to scientific evidence is just poor journalism.
I object to the ‘both sides’ when the other side is so blatantly misinformed. Are you going to give equal airtime to a flat earther? Why not? Don’t be part of the problem by writing misinformation as fact/opinion. New Zealand is not the United States, and the current administration is intent on racing to the bottom. Please do not follow them for your own integrity.
Peter Finch
Nelson
- Editor’s note: There is a sufficient level of public opposition to some councils, including Waipā, being ordered to add fluoride to water supplies that it would show a lack of integrity if this newspaper ignored it. Fluoride remains a controversial subject. The shape of our planet is not.
