Dear Minister of Local Government,

Please release us from the grim, grinch-like gridlocks of your Commissioners who, in claiming they are giving us what we want, are worse than any elected-council we have had in the past. The whole city is ripped up. They have removed heaps of parking. On the pretence of improving traffic flows they have actually made them worse by removing traffic lanes - notably dedicated left-turn lanes- and putting in double cycle lanes, unused of course.

Our streets are lined with litter, the berms unmowed and unkempt. Street corners flood because cesspits are clogged.

Empty buses are everywhere, only a council could think that it doesn't matter. Every ratepayer has to cough up more than $200 every year to pay for them.

Please spare our poor retailers from road and footpath works which for months are right outside their shops and which when finished have taken away any chance of a customer parking there.

Give ratepayers respite from ever increasing annual rates increases and threats of the consequences of flushing the toilet too often.

And finally, restore democracy to Tauranga City so we can elect our own employees. This time we will be careful who we elect as our mayor.

Dan Russell, Welcome Bay.