When wood and rubbish were blown and washed on to the foreshore in Picton, residents expected the council to arrive with diggers and trucks to clean it up. Ratepayers in other parts of the region expected the same service – or better – when they were flooded, had no power or water or sewerage and their roads were blocked or washed away.
Which work should have been the priority?
In this case, the council was right to first restore essential services, and work on that will continue today now the holidays are over. Meantime, Picton has waited for the mess on the foreshore to be cleaned up.
Unfortunately it is the height of the visitor season and the mess does not create a good impression in the port town, leading residents to complain to the council. Sounds ward councillor David Oddie sensibly offered to organise some gear for the callers to help him do the work, but they weren't interested. They saw that as the council's work.
The council should have done more to clean up the mess by calling staff or contractors back from holiday. It is more than a week since the storm that caused the problem and nothing much has been done outside the emergency repairs.
But that doesn't mean residents can sit back and moan. It's their town and they should help clean up the mess.
Express reporter Tania Butterfield saw how people in Canterbury helped each other after the quakes and can't understand all this sitting on hands in Picton. She is living there and sees the need to do something about it.
Tania and Mr Oddie planned to be on the waterfront this afternoon to get on with the clean-up.
Meantime, the council is back at work this morning and it looks like it has got someone on to the clean-up. That's good for the town, especially with a cruise liner expected in port on Friday.
So the residents can sit on their hands again. It's a shame they didn't take the chance to show some community spirit and maybe even have some fun while they were at it.
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