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

When I first analysed Western Bay District Plans I was most impressed with their strong adherence to sound management principles and the consideration given for the needs of the stakeholders.

Encouraged by their words, I searched further but was dismayed to find that the stakeholders were missing in action. People were angry, dissatisfied, despairing and many were leaving town. Businesses were dying, crops were failing and people were being chased off their land. I soon realised I had stumbled into the twilight zone of council politics. The ratepayers should be the obvious stakeholders in any council organisation but all seemed struck down and powerless. They have been accused in council documents of being apathetic and disinterested. Any vampirologist will confirm that he or she who wields a stake made of oak, ash or hawthorn, has absolute power. What has gone wrong?

I requested Section 32 information from the council, which should have revealed their authorities, base data and analysis used in council planning. Virtual reality was the order of the day. There was very little traceable information on these people with power behind the scenes and their motivation, so I asked for management's quality assurance information, which should have contained lists of relevant stakeholders and minutes of their meetings. Again no information was available and any lists of stakeholders, if they ever existed, seemed to be lost in the mists of time.

My suggestion at a council meeting that their stakeholders were just their mates was not appreciated. One councillor did use the term ‘pub talk' as an authority in some debate and if he is right, this would certainly be evidence of evil spirits at work. Who on earth are these stakeholders who, working in the shadows, are holding power over council direction and decisions? We will know our enemy when council decision-making is driven out from behind closed doors. But there is still hope and we have an invincible force for good. It is the real stakeholders.

The most significant and important primary stakeholder, the reason for the existence of a council organisation, is you, the ratepayers. You have the power to directly affect council decisions and you have the power to influence council direction.

Forget about being consulted, surveyed and having your good young people turned for evil. Back to basics. Out with the stakes, oak, ash or hawthorn. It is about time we applied our stakes, sharpened them and drove them home in a most pointed and directional manner possible.

This last submission process opened the door to their underworld but the experience has left many with the feeling of having been led astray by ghosts and will-o'-the-wisps.

Throw back their shutters of misinformation. Openness and transparency is the order of the day. No more secret undercover meetings and witches' cauldrons of rampant rhetoric and regulations. When it is all over, we will put our stake back in the ground and claim back that which was lost. We will overcome. Of course, we will have to know what we want and what is needed but the council resolutions from our submissions to the Long Term Plan is out within a week and if reading this doesn't give you direction and purpose to hammer your points home, nothing will.

My apologies to the readers who have complained about my weak suggestion to shake their trees to force any change. I hope this week I have managed a more persuasive metaphor to reinforce the authority we have and the need to exercise it if we have any chance of changing council's ways, reducing our debt bill and bringing rates under control.