We’ve been building up a list of complaints, we being a group of people who often catch a bus together to go to work. The bus stop that we get off at is nothing more than a painted line on a road with a sign on a lamp post; we alight into a small park along Parkside Road. Under normal conditions, this isn’t too bad. Morning dew and the occasional bottle stands as the biggest of obstacles. However, with winter being wet, the ground has softened or become mud, and with occasional construction going on, it’s also quite rutted in spots. Now that the election has been called, our little bus stop has also become a poster board for local candidates, in the form of a large, wooden-frame billboard.

This has prompted two emails, one to the offending political party office and one to Hutt City Council. In the first, I’ve asked for the billboard to be shifted an extra meter away from the road to allow for direct pedestrian access to the footpath¹. I received an immediate response to indicate that the issue will be forewarded to the right person. Fingers are crossed. In the second message, I requested that a footpath be added along the edge of the park, at least to the bus stop. Given that no fewer than a dozen people use that stop every morning for work, we deserve some sort of stable footing. I was sent an automated response, but no word on when human eyes might see the message. Ideally, we’d see an actual bus shelter along the route, but construction and maintenance of shelters has been outsourced to an advertising company.

Normally, I’d call that a good day, but it doesn’t stop there. Following the re-construction of the park at Courtenay Place, I have seen a few letters of complaint about it’s bland character and the choice of photographs in the display boxes. After discussing this with a friend on the bus, we decided that the best course of action would be to write to Wellington City Council and ask that a rotation of images be used in place of the pictures that are currently in place. Wellington is very photogenic and there is no shortage of pictures taken locally or by local photographers. As a result, I sent off another government-bound message suggesting that CreativeNZ be used to promote local photography in the displays.

If only one of my messages causes appropriate action, I’ll be happy. For the good of all…

Edit 17/09/2008: The offending billboard has been moved. Such is the power of asking nicely.

¹ This shouldn’t be too much extra work, since someone had knocked over that billboard and two others along the same road last night.