1349 days ago

Dog Park Not A Perk

Michael from Trentham

Upper Hutt City Council asking for opinions on whether to install a dog park in Upper Hutt and then how elaborate this park should be. The costs are ongoing but initally estimated at $100,000 for option one and $300,000 for option two.

I say no dog park.

Upper Hutt does not need a dog park because almost all of its parks, reserves and tracks are available for dogs off-leash.

Parts of Maidstone Park, Trentham Memorial Park and other partial sports grounds have restricted availablity for dogs off-leash when a sporting fixture is actually being held on a certain part of the ground. Upper Hutt is the most dog friendly city or large town in NZ.

To be off-leash a dog needs to know the basics like come, sit, stay and one can teach a puppy or adult dog these kinds of commands from within their lounge.

The major factor wrong with dog parks is that too many dog owners who pay high annual dog registration fees, feel that they therefore own the park and that their dog/s is entitled to roam the park off-leash no matter their behavioural situation. Dog parks promote dog fights which can spill over to vicious human behaviour as well as place people at risk.

There are 6300 registered dogs in Upper Hutt and many people from all parts of the Wellington region bring their dogs to UH to enjoy the parks etc and the venues such as Brewtown.

What the council should be doing for dog owners is reducing the cost of annual registration fees and granting free microchipping.

I have placed proposals to council and councillors for a dog playground in UH. This calls for a small open area say within the confines of Trentham Memorial Park (where it gets up to 2000 dog visits a week) with some permanent obstacles etc installed to suit large, medium and small size dogs. The cost would probably be less than $20,000. This would be fun, relatively inexpensive and right where the main attraction and action is for dogs and their owners. TMP is perhaps the best park in the world available for dogs. It is centralised and has everything except for a playground as per above, and is a gateway to kilometres of trails/ tracks and other parks.

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4 days ago

Today’s Mind-Bender is the Last of the Year! Can You Guess It Before Everyone Else? 🌟🎁🌲

The Riddler from The Neighbourly Riddler

I dance in the sky with green and gold, a spectacle few are lucky to behold; I’m best seen in the south, a celestial sight—what am I, lighting up the New Zealand night?

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3 days ago

Driven On The Akatarawa Rd Lately?

Marie from Waikanae

If so, its good to know you are still alive and reading this.

We have a function to go to over Christmas up that way and having heard a few hairy stories about the road, I went up there on Thursday to check it out. The road's ok, narrow and winding, but not much worse than a Wellington hill suburb. What was pretty scary was the behavior of other drivers. Three vehicles heading the other way at speed would have crashed into me if I hadn't been pulled off the road. I had pulled in to check the address when a truck came flying past, taking up all of the narrow road at speed. There is no way the driver would have been able to stop had they come around the corner immediately in front of me. The other two drivers came hurtling past as I had turned in to turn around and come back down the hill. They were also driving at speed and taking up most of the road. Coming back down I passed another car coming up and estimate that the safe speed to pass another car was about 30-35 kms.p.h. So, now we're thinking, do we go to the function or not.? Feels a bit like we're taking our life in our hands going up there. Drivers appear to be overconfident, and they are courting serious injury.