Re: ‘A very bad deal for ratepayers…' (The Weekend Sun, letters page, August 19)

The letter from Keith Hay, chair of the Katikati-Waihi Beach Residents & Ratepayers Association in last week's Sun.

The chief executive officer of the Western Bay of Plenty District Council has recently made a habit of ‘declining to comment' to Letters to the Editor that either affect himself or the council, which have been published in The Sun.

The CEO is also accountable to the residents and ratepayers of the Western Bay of Plenty, who also pay his very generous salary.

Included in an email sent to Keith Hay on June 28, the CEO provided an explanation regarding our Three Waters assets – which in my view shows ongoing delaying tactics by the council.

In part the CEO has stated: 'We are doing some high-level modelling and can make that available when it is complete, probably towards the end of July”.

In my opinion this statement is pure spin.

Submissions on the Water Services Entities Bill closed on July 21 and I must assume that the council are still doing their ‘high level modelling' as they fully support handing over Western BOP's water assets to the Government.

K Goddard, Omokoroa.

**** Western Bay of Plenty District Council CEO John Holyoake replies: We don't see the point in being argumentative and going back and forth on differing views. This is time consuming and better spent communicating when there is information to share.

I want to stress that the Three Waters Reform is not a one-way process. We need to wait for some of the parameters before we can truly understand the implications for our district.

So, you know what we know, and you know when we know. The best source of all council-related Three Waters Reform information is our dedicated webpage: www.westernbay.govt.nz/three-waters. Here we are posting the most up-to-date information when it becomes available.

Right now, this includes council's submission to the Water Services Entities Bill, which closed on Friday 22 July, and Council-specific financial modelling.

We've done this modelling for the (2021/2022 financial year) to help the community understand what the reform would mean for council's finances, balance sheet and borrowing.

Once again, I encourage you to look at the webpage and I assure you we are communicating with our community when it is appropriate and worthwhile.