Vexed a one-bus trip is now a four-bus trip
I am very disappointed with the Otago Regional Council’s new bus system. People have no idea where the new bus stops had been moved to.
I caught the bus from Brockville to Hillside Rd and got off at the corner of Hillside Rd and The Warehouse. I then got my groceries at Woolworths, then crossed the road to get my meat at the Mad Butcher’s. I then crossed the road and caught the bus home outside the Caledonian sports centre.
One bus down, one bus home, perfect. There are a lot of people that have mobility issues, myself included.
Now that the bus system has changed, I now have to catch four buses to get to the Mad Butcher. I hope the ORC has a wee rest in their zen room while I am trying to navigate four bus timetables, off and on four buses and wait times.
Sorry Mad Butcher, Woolworths, Mitre 10, you are now off my shopping list and I am being forced to shop somewhere else. Very unfair
[ORC regional planning and transport general manager Anita Dawe replies: "Thank you for sharing your concerns about the recent bus route changes in South Dunedin. We are sorry to hear that the changes have made it more difficult for you to access your preferred shopping destinations and we’d like to acknowledge the challenges that passengers with mobility issues can face when navigating changes to bus routes.
"The changes were made to improve connectivity to the South Dunedin shopping area and remove problematic intersections for our drivers. While we’ve received positive feedback from many passengers about the more direct alignment for Routes 44 and 55, we also recognise that the changes haven’t been perfect for everyone.
"We will be closely evaluating the impact of these changes over the coming months, taking into account passenger feedback, usage patterns, running times, and reliability. We remain committed to providing accessible and reliable public transport options for all users."
Insects matter
Saying that insects are an impediment to progress re mining, Gerrard Eckhoff (Opinion ODT 17.7.25) states that everything that crawls, hops, skips, flies and swims should be located to another spot. That would be a very difficult undertaking.It would most likely be at a loss.
Does Mr Eckhoff know that planet Earth is losing 2.5% of insect biomass every year, due mainly to insecticides, and resulting in
reduced crop yields, disruption in food chains and a decline in biodiversity.
If this rate of loss continues the future for all life is looking very grim.
What is more important in the grand scheme of life? Short-term gain in jobs and some money or loss of nature that our very lives depend on.
Trail-blazer
The headline to the article on the Rev Nora Calvert (ODT 21.7.25) and note she was a deaconess puts all the emphasis on her being a deaconess. This was an efficient order of the Presbyterian Church but it no longer exists.
Nora was in fact one of the first Presbyterian women to be ordained as a minister, and indeed she was the very first woman to graduate with the University of Otago's bachelor of divinity degree, which most male ordinands did not attempt.
After Nora had been ordained as a minister, among the roles she fulfilled were: hospital chaplain, supervisor of ministers, and Presbyterian Support counsellor.
In sum, Nora is an accomplished minister and person in both church and community.
[Maurice Andrew is a former principal of Knox Theological College.]
Sweetly throwing petrol on the vitriolic embers
Sir Ian Taylor has apparently found need to lengthen his critique of Dame Jacinda Ardern.
He has done so by expressing his amazement at the level of vitriol coming at him from the pro-Ardern camp.
Perhaps Sir Ian, if you were to lift your eyes above the dug-out of commercial success you might consider that such vitriol, but magnified by millions and millions of haters from here and abroad, is what Jacinda had directed at her throughout her second spell as prime minister.
And you have very jovially and sweetly thrown petrol on those embers.
It doesn't matter what side you are on in this case.
Death threats and threats of violence towards her, her family and all of her advisors could be called New Zealand's darkest days.
That's when Aotearoa switched on 24/7 hate.
Normally I'm happy for your egalitarian stance to be aired.
But if you couldn't see what you were about to do to this country and to a well-meaning person and her family then maybe you should maybe just keep schtum.
Private is not better but it is more expensive
In the July 18 issue of the Wānaka Sun, two health-related articles promoted the ideas that private hospitals in Queenstown and Wānaka would be good for the area and that our local MP thinks too much is being spent on the new Dunedin hospital and some of that should have been directed to Central Otago.
Private hospitals do not provide better care than public hospitals, only more expensive and quicker elective care, at a high price, because the public health system is so overstretched and underfunded. That extra cost rewards investors and is paid for by ever higher patient insurance premiums and cash payments.
Private hospitals also will never provide urgent and emergency care because these are not paid for by private health insurance and are very expensive to provide. So, private hospitals should not be promoted until the public system decides what it will do about a public hospital in Central Otago.
Waitaki MP Miles Anderson is disingenuous suggesting that too much money is being spent on a Dunedin hospital that, in reality, isn’t expanding the capability of seeing more patients. Dunedin hospital is needed for tertiary care for Central Otago patients.
The problem is that his coalition will not spend the money needed to provide for a general hospital in Central Otago, not that there’s too much money being spent in Dunedin.
The answer to providing more accessible care in the public system is to raise more money to provide it. I challenge the government to submit a referendum to let the public decide if the taxing system should be changed to support an adequately sized public system.
And I hope to see that our local political leaders stop promoting private hospitals over public hospitals as a solution to our healthcare needs.
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: editor@odt.co.nz
