Dave Stewart
Piripai

I NEVER learned much at school, but I did learn there are always two sides to every story.

So, it was nice to read the letter from Sue Whale (Beacon, Friday, October 11) supporting the proposed Arts Hub at the former Wally Sutherland site.

Clearing up the disinformation about that project certainly paints a much more realistic and optimistic picture than the negativity peddlers offer.

As does the letter from Carolyn Hamill (Wednesday, October 16) on behalf of the Whakatāne-Ōhope Community Board providing a more positive contribution to the discussion we are having on our Sunday Market and the Mitchell Park Master Plan.

There was a minor avalanche of letters recently condemning this spending and readers who delved no further than the rhetoric would be excused for thinking we were paying half a million dollars for a dunny.

We’re all getting very weary of the barrage of misinformation that seems to be aimed at our council for almost everything they do.

I took the liberty of asking to see the minutes of the meeting where the master plan was approved and found that, along with a new toilet, we are getting new lights, improved pedestrian access, better facilities for disabled ratepayers, more cohesion with the RSA next door for our memorial services, lighting and improved ability to run night-time community events and a host of other enrichments which, as is now customary, were left out of the rants by the negativity brigade.

And we must all send a bouquet to Diane McCarthy for her front page story, “Corruption, conspiracy and toxic fruit allegations” (Friday, October 18) about the Challenging Councils NZ people who are one of the central points for disinformation on councils on social media.

My word, talk about going above and beyond the call of duty for the story.

I’ve spent far too long reading their Facebook pages, which tell me that while the council is wasting ratepayers’ money on half million dollars toilets, they’re also in cahoots with Bill Gates and Taylor Swift, the alien lizard people who run the world from the hollow moon and support 5G, 1080, manufacturing extreme weather events, chem trails, micro-chipped vaccines and any other fashionable conspiracies of the day, none of which are true.

I was surprised they didn’t claim the councils were eating the dogs and cats and the pets of the people who lived there.

Misinformation and disinformation are, of course, designed to undermine our democracy, and we all have a lot to lose if we don’t challenge it.

That is not to say the council is always right and doesn’t need to be watched closely.

We are all thankful for a mayor like Dr Victor Luca, who also entered the maelstrom of madness that night and defended the oversight that our local council has with all the council’s long-term and annual plans and annual reports undergoing a thorough independent auditing process and did not require further “forensic” auditing by conspiracy kooks.

“All of this is public. I mean, our council meetings are broadcast in real time. If you go on the council’s website, you will find all this information.” He told them.

And that’s where I found the positive information on the Mitchell Park upgrades; thank you Dr Luca.

The real problems all councils face is the funding model used is broken.

Add to that the fact that we have a Central Government eyeing up councils with a predatory “user pays” eye and their fifth columnists spreading the bad vibes, our vigilance over attacks to our democracy is ever more important.

Motivated people are eyeing up the next local body elections, with a view to turning our council chambers into farcical vats of stupidity by putting up “approved” candidates to support.

Watch out for these people and always question why you’re getting only the negative side of the story.