Re: Trying to put positive slant on the absolute disaster being inflicted on our fine town of Te Puke. It is bad enough that a small group have displaced our fine motto of Te Puke being ‘The Kiwifruit Kapital of the World'? Now we have the traffic being disrupted to satisfy a few shopkeepers, and in an effort to force traffic onto the tolled Tauranga Eastern Link highway. The grass strip, which separates eastern and western flow of traffic, has been killed to stop people walking across the road – trying to force people to walk hundreds of metres to use a pedestrian crossing instead. The planting of thousands of plants here will probably do little to deter people from crossing as they do now. The roundabout on Jellicoe and Jocelyn streets – a prime site for such plants – is being left in grass. Common sense has died! What assistance would Western Bay of Plenty councillors Kevin Marsh and John Scrimgeour like in undoing this disgraceful disaster. I have met very, very few people who think it is a positive move for our town. The new motto for our town, until we get the correct one back, could be: 'Goodness, What a Disaster”.

FJ Cammock, Te Puke.