High cost for stairs I read with concern in Hibiscus Matters, March 15 edition, that Auckland Council is to spend $490,000 repairing the stairs leading to the beach below Pacific Parade in Army Bay. It’s a pity that the Council didn’t get onto this earlier. Initially, it was a minor rockfall that came down on top of the stairs, breaking part of them. This could have been fixed without much fuss or expense, and the rest of the structure could have been saved. It has now deteriorated to a point that it’s a major problem to remedy. However, I accept that the stairs need to be reinstated, but am baffled to know how the figure of just under half a million dollars has been arrived at. It is intimated in the article that climate change is an increasing concern to such structures in coastal regions, and there’s no argument about that. However, a request to Council by several residents to have something done about the rabbit plague on the reserve front along the cliff-tops of Pacific Parade, drew a weak and ineffectual response. They might well find that it’s not climate change that will cause accelerated erosion along the cliff-top here, but rabbits burrowing into the fragile margins along the front of the reserve. No doubt if the stairs are anything to go by, they’ll leave the control of rabbits until it’s too late and ratepayers will end up with another horrendous bill.