Brian Anderson The Western Front www.sunlive.co.nz

My neighbour loves Sudoku and was very appreciative when we gave her a large book of never ending numbers with blank spaces. The WBOP District Council's 10 year long term plan and the Sudoku book are very much alike with many incomplete tables of numbers offering a certain masochistic pleasure in the task of trying to fill the gaps.

The whole document could have been presented clearly for the public to understand in 50 pages. No one seems to have complained about the presentation of the Regional Council's 10 year plan. The information from the main document is clear and easy to read and the Regional Council has included a 40 page summary. The Region's planning has been criticised which means that the public has been able to read it. The only general complaints over the regional plan have been over the increase in regional rates and accusations of ignoring the harbour in favour of Rotorua.

Why is Rotorua getting more money than the Tauranga Harbour? Are we a cash cow for Rotorua? At a recent meeting, Cr Jane Nees read out a very long list of harbour projects, information from different places in the plan. There are a number of ongoing harbour projects that are funded and are starting to address issues like the siltation of the harbour that Andrew von Dadelszen mentioned last week. Rotorua seems to feature more in the plan because much of the spending there is on new projects that need explanation. I checked all of the references and found that the combined total of spending on the harbour is $2m rising to $3m by 2022, amounts that are comparable to the money for similar tasks in Rotorua.

Last week, I noted the spasmodic set of WBOPD Council figures for income from financial contributions, I still have had no answer back on my questions. The BOP Regional Council seemed to have similar problems in their table of General Rates on Median Property Values across the seven districts. They openly admit to an adjustment to the first column but this was directly related to rates changes made from an earlier table was written and were only about 7%, not the 80% of Western Bay of Plenty's figures. Most of the rate projections for the regional council's following nine years suggest growth of values of about 10% per year, but Western Bay was indicated an amazing growth rate of 20% in one year. I checked. The table is derived by a simple formula applied to valuations supplied by QV and was written before the current valuations came out. Council is already inputting the new valuations which show some properties in the Bay dropping over 20%.

Page 33 of the summary of the Region's 10 year plan is a delight. It lists changes of funding, where funding is being increased, where it is maintained, where it is reduced and which projects have had funding stopped. That single page is all that most people would need to understand, have an opinion and be willing to add their support or criticism in a submission. The District Council's Plan is in need of a total rewrite. One district councillor is quoted in the paper saying that the document offered information but not very specifically. Amazing! How many trees would have died if WBOPD Council had ever achieved specificity? How many of current councillors now can read and explain the document? If they are having any problems I can recommend my neighbour. She is excellent at filling the gaps. She would sort them out and would make a great Mayor.