LOCAL COUNCILS IN THE DEEP END
The plight with deteriorating tap water and sewerage pipes in the Wellington region and the costs passed on in local taxes to ratepayers is a timely situation for local councils to be forced to reconsider what they are suppose to provide their residents.
In Upper Hutt, the council has gone ahead a forked out millions to upgrade its public swimming pool. The council seems bent on doing something similar to its central library.
I would say that rather than do this or even develop an elaborate swimming pool in the first instant, the UH Council should adhere to being providers of the basics to its residents - clean tap water, sewerage disposal, street lighting, pavements, roading and keeping its parks and reserves in order.
Of all these things mentioned as the basics - there is a falling and a failure in Upper Hutt, and this (apart from parks and reserves) is also occurring in Wellington, Porirua and Lower Hutt.
Driven On The Akatarawa Rd Lately?
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.
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