With such a huge protest turnout in terrible weather, it shows that people are worried.
They know they have little influence with these commissioners and just have to watch as they are billed for serious rate increases. The commissioners may say they are listening, but just ignore their ratepayers' concerns. They waste money.
Nowhere is that more relevant than at Omanawa Falls, where the commissioners have ignored the concerns of local residents and are just steamrolling ahead with a multi-million dollar proposal for a very significant upgrade which will not solve any of the problems of the past.
The initial proposal, with a smaller budget, provided an acceptable solution. Now, after spending an enormous amount of money, they will give the Falls to Iwi without any consultation with the ratepayers. Omanawa Falls is an historic asset. This is an historic public site, paid for by ratepayers, and yet the commissioners will give it away without any referendum on such an important asset. The sooner we return to a true democracy the better.
Margaret Murray-Benge, Bethlehem (abridged).
2 comments
OUT OF CONTROL!
Posted on 09-08-2021 07:27 | By crazyhorse
These commissioners have been foisted on the ratepayers of Tauranga by a local gov't minister that cares little for democracy and more for the ideology of the Labour/Socialist party, once again all we hear is what Maori wnt and expensive ill-thought-out infrastructure plans that few agree with, divided council's are becoming the norm because people do not campaign on their actual intentions once they are elected, just look at the state of Rotorua?New Zealand if fast becoming a divided nation because of a minority not interested in anything else except themselves and what they 'perceive as their right!
Once bitten.
Posted on 09-08-2021 10:35 | By R Goodall
Sorry, Mrs Benge, you are wrong again. The protest was not by 'hundreds' nor 'huge'. It was by 62 (by my count and I was there) petulant children who did not know what they want but they want it now. The ex-councillors had their chance and have messed up big time for years. Now they should keep quiet and let experts do the job. Tauranga has too many selfish moaners and too few achievers.
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