The Government's claim to have listened to community concerns about their Three Waters proposal is total drivel.

The Government claims that under its modified proposal local authorities would retain ownership of their Three Waters assets.

This is playing with words. Ownership means having the ability to control what happens to them, and to decide what to charge for their use.

Under the Government's proposal, Western BOP will have absolutely no meaningful control at all: we will have two votes out of 33 when choosing those who will represent local authorities in our region (Entity B), and collectively the 33 ‘voters' will have the right to appoint just half of the directors of the board which will run the Three Waters infrastructure in our region. The other half of the board will be appointed by Maori.

Yes, the Government listened to the advice of the committee set up to provide advice on the matter, but that committee was stacked almost entirely with ‘yes people' who were known to favour the basic shape of what the Government proposed. It was not consultation in any meaningful sense at all. This outcome is tragic.

Cr Margaret Murray-Benge, Bethlehem.