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

This has been the week of submission hearings for the Western Bay of Plenty District Council's Long Term Plan.

Very few ratepayers have been able to read the 415 page document but 600 submitters have filed more than 2000 pages of submissions for the councillors to read over the weekend and listen to this week.

I have scanned the documents looking for any common themes and also called representatives from around the wards to get an idea of local concerns. Finance, or lack of it, is common to all.

Concern over the large Council debt and the plans to raise rates spectacularly over the next few years to finance the growing debt mountain are common in all wards. All wards have recognised that the rate burden for the elderly is unsustainable and will be getting worse.

Unfortunately, Western Bay has not been particularly successful in communicating any hope that, with the current system, they will be able to correct the deteriorating situation. There are many specific local problems but I was surprised to learn from my phone calls that there are four different rock walls around the district that are all high on the list of suspect and expensive projects. They don't need to be dropped. They are falling down already.

A clear warning has emerged from other countries over the global financial crisis is that cutbacks and austerity measures will not work unless there are clear goals with some associated hope evident. Apart from a few line graphs that are predicted to edge up in a few years time, no goals or hope was evident in the document and our directions from council were to suggest pruning more. This instruction would make the tough times our fault.

Let us hope that the council will have been listening. Some submitters have reinforcing the idea that you can't fix the problem with the same tools you used that got you into trouble in the first place. In council's case this means they should be looking seriously not just at representation but at a total restructuring of council to encourage growth.

We wait now for the word from on high. I have high hopes for some progress to be made this year. Many of the submitters have defied the time constraints and managed to cobble together some good research and are promoting ideas that should only help good council and community relations. I believe the councillors have listened. The question now is have they heard or have we just generated more work for consultants?