There are a few reasons that Tauranga City's parking is such a nightmare of a situation and CBD workers are now complaining and creating a petition to the council.

The first is the design of the city's retail centres and shopping developments – even if you wanted to bus into town for the day to shop you'd have to catch about five buses to go round all the shopping centres to get to the shops you need to visit – as they are so spread out.

Most cities have two main centres where you can shop with all the big name stores etc. We have five or six.

Secondly, the council thinks that everyone who works in Tauranga lives in Tauranga – and will bus to their jobs. No sorry – Tauranga is regional hub for the Western BOP, so people drive into Tauranga to work from their homes – which are located across the Western BOP. You won't get a bus timetable to suit everyone-from-out-of-town's employment timetable.

Lastly, there's a mismatch between Tauranga City Council managing carparking in the city and the Bay of Plenty Regional council running the region's buses. Both buses and carparking need to be under the same authority to create synergies and opportunities for travelers. As we know the two councils working together on something could take donkey's years to get through the two bureaucracies.

J Jones, Apata.

***TCC was offered right of reply to this letter, but declined.