PLANT THREAT TO HEALTH
If being opposed to the building of a waste to poison plant burning 350,000 tonnes of rubbish per year and emitting a continuous flow of emissions is being a Luddite, then call me one.
I am astounded the people of Oamaru and North Otago are not marching in the streets to protest the prospect of this rubbish burning plant being built approximately 30km north of their town.
This plant is a threat to their health and to the economic well being of the region and the country as a whole and will definitely not be ‘‘out of sight, out of mind.’’
DITCH THE INCINERATORS
Clive Blunden (Letters, June 7) advocates deportation of opponents to South Island Resource Recovery Ltd’s (SIRRL’s) proposed Waimate waste-to-poisons plant to Australian penal colonies.
His anti-Luddite colonial solution is an echo of SIRRL itself, whose Mid-Cantabrian squires and mayoral allies have tried to foist their huge furnace on the small towns of Hokitika, Westport and now the hamlet of Morven-Glenavy.
Overseas, convention would place super-sized incinerators in the cities where the waste is generated but Auckland and Christchurch eschew the charmless attributes of fossil-fuelled waste-to-energy technology that persist; industrial revolution-era soots, sludges and gigantic slagheaps.
Like Mr Blunden, however, SIRRL squires now imply the rebels of Waimate are uneducated peasants for not embracing it.
This project is expensive out-of-sight, out-of-mind rubbish disposal. The plant’s 30MW electricity generation is paltry. The fuels, municipal solid waste and demolition and construction waste are laced with some of the worst petrochemicals invented in the last 50 years and its CO2 emissions alone would be equal to putting another 100,000 cars on the road.
The atmospheric range of greenhouse and acid gases and ultrafine particles from the 75m-high stack on prevailing winds wouldn’t be contained by regional boundaries — a problem Waimate would share with Waitaki and far beyond.
Oamaru is famous for its witty nod to the steam age. Its lack of overt consumerism, a thriving resource recovery facility, op shops, artisan and repair expertise suggest it’s ripe in waste management terms to transition to a low emissions, circular economy.
Let’s embrace the infamous Luddite spirit and aim it towards climate polluters like Shein and Temu, ditch the incinerators that would rely on them and move forward together for the planet and next generations.
PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM
We have just heard the news that there will soon be new owners of our beloved Oamaru Cinema.
We wish them well, but most importantly want to thank Sam for saving the cinema.
The cinema closed soon after we arrived in Oamaru, and for a while it looked like it might disappear all together. But thankfully Sam came along, and managed to turn it into probably the best small cinema in New Zealand. Through a new fit out, the town gained a state-of-the-art cinema with superb projection, sound and very comfy seats.
Without doubt the saving of the cinema is the best thing that has happened for the community while we have lived in the town. It is fantastic for young and old alike.
So thanks Sam; we will miss you and your love of the movies. And best wishes for your future adventures.
RESIDENTS’ SURVEY
Waitaki District Council response to last week’s letter from Fliss Butcher re the residents’ survey:
Waitaki District Council conducts the residents’ survey annually. The survey is really important to us in understanding how we are performing in key areas and informs our overall performance that we report annually. Previous surveys and the current one will inform how we change the council to meet community needs better.
As most councils do, we used to use an external agency to conduct the survey. The cost of this was increasing and only covered a limited part of our community.
This year, for the first time, we brought the promotion and advertising of the survey in-house. As a result we have saved far, far more in total than the $500 Prezzy Card we’re offering to those who complete the survey, as well as opening up the survey to all our residents.
This is part of our ongoing efforts to live within our means as a council, and shows we are cutting costs by doing things differently, as you and many others in the district have asked us.
We encourage everyone to have their say, so that we can get a better picture of how you view council and be in with a chance to win.
