I read with utter disbelief the motel and accommodation people's plight over the clash of events to be held in Tauranga on 6/8 January 2012, namely the Tauranga Half-Ironman and the North Island Children's Colgate Athletics Games.
Mayor Crosby has tried to gloss over it as if it is nothing but it should never have happened. A simple enquiry could have revealed the problems that would arise.
Tauranga has available to it the likes of Priority One, Sports BOP, Tauranga Chamber of Commerce, Tourism BOP and TCC also has a designated events co-ordinator but it seems not one of them bothered to check the numbers involved.
We all know the Tauranga Half-Ironman is a huge event in itself but the Colgate Games with 3000 children participating and 3,000 parents involved totalling 6,000 is probably even bigger. One event would struggle with accommodation that weekend, but two events is a nightmare and unworkable.
In addition, Mount Maunganui is a major New Year holiday destination and the Mount camping grounds are still full with holiday makers at that time.
The North Island Colgate Games are normally held early in January as is the Half Ironman. Surely one event with some planning could have been changed by a week probably the Colgate Games put back to 14 January 2012 without too much fuss.
This type of mess is as usual a complete indictment of TCC and Tauranga sporting bodies more so because there seems to have been no attempt to sort the problem out and reorganise things. To say they will bus athletes in from the Waikato or Rotorua is not the answer. It just shows Tauranga has no idea how to organise anything.
R Paterson, Matapihi.