The Star: April 06, 2023

The Star Thursday April 6 2023
20
LETTERS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
By-elections: Ratepayers shouldn’t foot the bill
The Star (March 30, page
1,) reported that two recentlyelected
civic politicians chose to
leave their new positions.
One (Reuben Davidson)
has moved on to more responsibility
in the Labour Party.
Fair enough, I suppose.
The other (Shreejana Chhetri)
has resigned because she prefers
to stay in her present job. Shame
on her and the Labour Party for
allowing this to happen.
A by-election will cost many
thousands of taxpayer dollars.
If people submit their names for
election, it is expected that they
will take up the
job if elected to it.
One could
extend this line of
thinking to our
last New Zealand
prime minister
but I was so happy
to see her go that I
really didn’t mind
her breaches of her
Reuben
Davidson
often-stated promises to stand
in the upcoming general election
(made late last year). I did,
however, get up
and dance on the
sidewalk when
I first heard the
good news.
-Lorne Kuehn,
Avonhead
Shreejana
Chhetri
My belief is that
those who create a
by-election should
pay, not the ratepayers nor taxpayers
should it be a minister.
I also agree that the candidate
who polled second in elections
should be promoted to the vacant
position. Even if that person
resigns on medical grounds.
Neither of the two councillors
should have stood knowing
they were going to resign. As for
Chhetri, she should have thought
about her family commitments
before standing.
-Raymond Hira, Shirley
Future for Local
Government Review
Last week Craig Pauling asked “What
will local government look like?’’
From my understanding of the bill
before Parliament, all regional councils
will be replaced with 15 “local’’ councils.
With all the major work of city councils
then being done by these regional
councils, our city councillors will be
reduced to being “wellness officers’’ –
whatever that means.
However you may feel about our present
councils, you will have no control over
how our taxes/rates are spent with this
new centralised, unelected body.
They could pool all the funds together
for their area and decide the best use is to
make bike lanes on our one-lane bridges,
or make completely new bike-only bridges
next to our one-lane bridges, and there are
a few of those around.
From my viewpoint, the future of local
government is anything but local.
-D Downward, Bryndwr
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