Tauranga City Councillors are bracing themselves for three days of listening to public submissions as annual plan hearings begin.
Councillors have until Wednesday to troll through submissions that fill four telephone book sized agendas.

The annual plan submissions.

Many of the submissions oppose the council's intention to increase library charges.
The contentious issue is a recommended charge of 50 cents on all adult loans, which the council proposes to raise to 80 cents on all adult loans after three years.
The council currently pays $6 million towards the city libraries' $6.7 million annual costs. The intention is to raise libraries' income from the current 10 per cent of cost to 20 per cent - from $713,000 to $1.5 million by 2014.
The proposed 50 cent charge on all adult loans is expected to add $353,000 to the libraries' income.
Other options include shortening loan periods for some items and increasing the price of library cards. Children and teens items are not included in the proposed charging regime.
Numbers that are not known are the drop in patronage as a result of the charges. For the purpose of discussion it has been estimated at 22.5 per cent.
Another issue creating feedback is the council recommendation to double Route K tolls to $2 and to raise heavy vehicle tolls from $4 to $5.
The toll road is not paying its way, and if the tolls are not increased, ratepayers will have to support it.