New Zealand Conservative

A Wellington family narrowly avoided a $400 fine for putting glass in their recycling bin on the wrong week because of an offensive note written by one of the men who collects recycling. It sounds to me like recycling in Wellington is becoming more trouble than it's worth. If I lived there, I'd probably just start throwing all my recycling into my weekly bin rather than risking being fined for putting the wrong items out each week. Related link: Dodged a fine but upset by note ~ Stuff

The other week the Dominion Post published a piece by Marie Russell , a "keen user" of Wellington's public libraries, on the future of public libraries in Wellington. Marie was alarmed to discover that "free libraries" appeared to be under threat from council funding cuts, but noticed there was plenty of money for what she called "Rugby World Cup-type circuses". Here are some things the council may not want citizens to know: last year, the long-term plan decided on an increase in net expenditure on libraries to $20.99 million in 2010-11 - a 3.26 per cent increase on the previous year. But the annual plan unilaterally supersedes that, with a massive decline in net expenditure on libraries in the coming year of 8.49 per cent to $19.2m. [...]Tourism promotion spending is up by 10.26 per cent and events attraction and support gets a 6.8 per cent boost in the draft annual plan. Together, these amount to nearly $9m that will chiefly benefit hospitality bu...