Mayor Stuart Crosby is downplaying accusations the Tauranga City Council tried to limit protest against its moves to introduce library charges and says it is a case of "he said, she said".
Protest organiser and Raging Readers spearhead Vanessa Byrnes is claiming council staff attempted to move her and her mother along, when they were outside the library handing out public submission forms for the council's annual plan hearing.

See video below of Raging Reader Vanessa Byrnes, as she explains her 'countenance more in sorrow than in anger'.

"Something must be rotten in the state of Denmark for that to happen," says Vanessa.
She says she would only leave if trespassed, and the council staffers went away.
Mayor Stuart Crosby says Vanessa and her mother were permitted to continue handing out the submission forms because no one had made a complaint.
"It's a bit of he said, she said," says Stuart, who is excited by the public response of about 1000 public submissions made.
"It's tremendous, that's what it's all about," says Stuart, "it's all about them telling us their views on these subjects."
The most regular message to come through from the submissions is the social impact raising library charges will have on literacy and education in the community.
The councillors have tended to focus on the budgetary aspects, and through the submission process have learned about the libraries' significant community role, says Stuart.

Councillor Bill Grainger says 92 per cent of the submissions are opposing the council's decision to raise charges and reduce services.
The decision has been attacked politically, metaphorically and by Kate Clarke from a business management point of view.
She says the Tauranga libraries are highly efficient when compared with those of other New Zealand cities of similar size, and that to degrade the libraries is to needlessly devalue an asset ratepayers are justifiably proud of.