It does disappoint me that there are actually some people out there who seem to believe former elected members of council should basically lose the right to be able to express their personal views via letters to the editor.

I'm referring to Graeme Horsley's letter ‘Stand up for your region - don't be afraid' (The Weekend Sun, December 29) in regard to possible future local government amalgamation.
I would like to inform the correspondent that during the last 20 years I've written many letters to the papers and his criticism will not stop me from writing to express my views into the future.

It seems, at present, that the main people in favour of amalgamation is the development community, the Tauranga City Mayor Stuart Crosby, telling the media he wants to be the mayor of any Bay of Plenty super-council, and some business leaders.

But constantly I have said that the people living within any affected amalgamated areas should also have major input. Any future amalgamation should be a win-win situation for all communities affected. And there should also be areas of common interest and personally I have some difficulty accepting that there are great community similarities between say Tauranga City and Waihi Beach or Maketu.

Watch the orchestrated campaign that will occur during coming months but I repeat: ‘Be afraid'.

M Baker, Bethlehem.