With all the justifiable angst to the south of Otaki over Minister Joyce autobahn, there has been very little attention paid to the plight of Otaki with its planned by-pass.

 At the last Otaki Community Board meeting for 2010, LTNZ came to town to report back.

 A roomful of perhaps 40 people made the effort on a summer’s evening to come and learn what was in store of them, their lives and their properties. They went away none the wiser. The community does not have a great deal more information they did 6 months ago. This in my view is discourteous at best and negligent of people at worst. LTNZ deserve a bollocking for their management of Otaki and the impact on the town and on people’s lives.

 We learnt that:

• Interchanges have been looked at.
• Signage was important and being considered.
• And the impact on future double tracking of the community needed to be considered.

 So what’s new? These were all issues raised by the community board and the wider community nearly a year ago.