Dear Editor, on January 19, 2023, Sunlive ran a story about Mr Ian Young's petition to Parliament about Tauranga's toll roads.

A Waka Kotahi spokesperson said there was 'considerable public support” for toll roads in Tauranga and said 'for example in 2009 public were consulted on whether they supported the Tauranga Eastern Link being a toll road so construction could start 10 years earlier”.

Two of those ‘public' were the Gisborne and Rotorua district councils who sent representatives to emphasise their support to the hearing commissioners.

A lot of those ‘public' who made submissions in favour of the toll road lived in Te Puke and surrounds and would never had any need to use the road.

A submitter against the tolling proposal 'so the road could be built 10 years earlier” accurately described the threat as 'bureaucratic blackmail”.

P Harlen, Mount Maunganui.

***When offered, NZTA declined a right of reply.