Should Tauranga's democracy be restored? Former Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby has recently responded to the Labour Government's strong criticism of his and others' recent leadership of the Tauranga City Council while Tenby Powell has called on the Government not to restore Tauranga's democracy. Clearly Powell and the Labour Government believe that Tauranga voters are too foolish to deserve democracy. Perhaps they have a point: after all in the last election Tauranga ratepayers voted in a Mayor who was unsuited to the job.

On the other hand, democracy is messy and electors are entitled to make mistakes. And in fairness to electors, Powell did claim that he had strong leadership and interpersonal skills! And what has the confiscation of our democracy given us: four commissioners, who, doing the Labour Government's bidding, disregarded the will of people of Tauranga as measured through 'consultation” and instituted steep rate rises at the worst possible time, causing much hardship, and now promising to do the same in the next round. So I reject Powell's view that the ratepayers of Tauranga do not deserve democracy and I endorse Bill Capamagian's view (The Weekend Sun letters page, February 25, 2022) that democracy should be restored as soon as possible.

R.Rimmer, Welcome Bay.