I do not live there but I am local to the core
When my family was moving from Fairfield to Timaru, Dad and my uncle sold their sections at Taieri Mouth and Uncle Lindsay bought a section at Albert Town. That was back in the 1950s.
Uncle Lindsay and mates built a crib and moved it up there on the back of a truck that had an argument with a power pole in the Kawarau Gorge. The photo made the ODT.
We had the best ever holidays up there. Albert Town was one vast expanse of paddocks back then, few residents, the odd crib. Dirt roads. Our camping site is now under tar seal. Dad was a commercial traveller so he knew the store owners and we were treated like locals with an account because out-of-towners copped price increases.
So, 50 years on, I read about McDonald’s application to build an outlet at the base of Mt Iron. I follow the progress of the application to its conclusion.
No, say the locals. I may not live there. Can’t afford to. But once upon a time I was a "local" and the thing about Central Otago is that, if you grew up there, it grew into and over you. Like a second skin.
When the politicians in Wellington decried the acceptance of submissions on building application from McDonald’s from non-residents, I reckon a fair few of those would be like me. We don’t live there but spent enough time there to not want it spoiled beyond what it is already.
As for "growth and development"? In the words of Brian Turner ... "We think we know where we’re heading and why, and two words dwarf all others: living here".
Article defended
It is unfortunate and misleading that Cr Sophie Barker has asserted that Waste Futures and Shaping Dunedin Future Transport funding is part of the Zero Carbon funding (Letters, 13.2.25).
I stand by my article (The Weekend Mix 8.2.25). When council adopted the Zero Carbon plan in 2023, funding had already been committed for those earlier projects — to both manage the Green Island landfall running out of space and the traffic issues related to the hospital build. Council staff were very explicit that more investment would be required to meet the Zero Carbon by 2030 target.
Staff presented options to council recently with a pathway towards Zero Carbon, but a slim majority of councillors voted to ignore staff recommendations and ditch the High/Medium Carbon Investment option in the nine-year plan document.
Council has two targets: 1) Net Zero by 2030 (whole city) — achievable with a high investment scenario, and; 2) An organisation target — DCC has its own emissions — think fleet, landfill, heating buildings, wastewater treatment plants.
Cr Barker’s comment that the "DCC itself is expected to reach zero carbon by 2030" is not supported by this week’s staff report: it states the exact opposite.
Public feedback on the nine-year plan matters and remember, we have local body elections this year.
It is imperative our community has a say in our climate future. Council could choose to invest for better outcomes because climate action saves dollars, both now and for future generations.
Old-fashioned views
Malcolm Moncrief-Spittle may be right about having "some old-fashioned views" (Letters 10.2.25). It has become distinctly unfashionable to support a brutal ethno-state which destroys whole cities, which bombs families in tents, which holds thousands of adults and hundreds of children in military detention centres — all the while claiming self-defence against "terrorists". It is safe to say that the large majority of people rightly abhor such old-fashioned brutalistic behaviour.
Lids barred from recycling bins for good reason
Lids. Little things, you might think. However, as schoolchildren in Stratford have learned (ODT 13.2.25), they tend to be composed of different plastic to plastic bottles.
Hence when putting plastic items like bottles or other containers into recycling bins it is important to remove the lids. Otherwise they contaminate the plastic and the entire contents of the bin will end up in landfill. This is because the plastic is sorted by machines which cannot detect lids because of their small size.
The rules regarding which items can and cannot be recycled were simplified so that throughout the country only types 1,2 and 5 plastics can be recycled.
However, lids are excluded from this. Lids alone comprise an enormous amount of plastic going into landfill. And the amount of stuff going into landfill will continue to be large because some people don’t follow the guidelines. So please consider the environment and take a moment to check that you are following the local guidelines if your council provides this service — but that’s another story.
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: editor@odt.co.nz
