Insight and Courage called for

Editor,


I wonder if any Kāpiti mayoral candidates have the insight and courage to speak out against the so-called expressway or whether they will all go the way of Jenny Rowan who, in spite of being vocally opposed to it once, now attempts to soothe voters by promulgating the ridiculous notion it brings benefits to the district. Yeah right!
Study the plans! It offers only disadvantage in terms of getting around the district. In reality, it would clog Kāpiti, Rimu, and Te Moana Roads and sever Peka Peka. It would render the Raumati rail station impossible to build, ruin our topography, and decimate property values.
Another flood, like the major ones in 1998 and 2005, would wash loose matter during construction into, and wreck, the Waikanae estuary.
The only winners would be the ego of master manipulator and former Kāpiti schoolboy Steven Joyce and the bank accounts of infrastructure company shareholders.
In my view any mayoral candidates who support, or are resigned to, this idiotic proposal have their heads in the sand and are not worth considering. It’s an outrageously uneconomic, outdated, and detrimental concept that plainly doesn’t fit with 21st Century needs and trends. It’s not progress. It’s regression.

Bos O’Sullivan
Paraparaumu