Re: ‘Ratepayers' pockets are not bottomless' (The Weekend Sun, June 10).

I've noted Labour list MP Angie Warren Clark's reply to my letter in The Sun on June 10. I write to challenge her comments as follows.

Angie's reply to my letter concerning the experiment of Three Waters is misleading. She states that water assets, including land, buildings infrastructure and treatment facilities are not being confiscated. To take these away from ratepayers and councils by mandate, who paid for these assets, without recompense is obviously confiscation.

The Labour Party then intends investing our multi-million dollar assets into a bureaucratic government-appointed board with no local input and comprised partly of Maori representation – all of which may have no expertise in water treatment whatsoever.

That is plainly undemocratic and totally illogical. She tells us that the new board will allow 'oversight from local councils will ensure community voices will be heard”. What! Just like Auckland Transport Board listens to Aucklanders' views? She also states there will be clean drinking water and no sewerage leakage issues either. In the main, we get this now! However, we have aged pipes and services that cannot be cured by Angie pronouncement that it will never happen again. What is needed is sufficient funding to local government, allowing the councils' water engineers to fix the problem themselves. This will be a hot election topic.

David Hallett, Mount Maunganui.