I for one am sick of Labour saying they will talk about charging for water after the elections. How gullible do they think we are?

Local government is responsible for ensuring that we supply residents with water, and it costs an extraordinary amount of money to put in the infrastructure, with no financial help from government. Water meters are installed to ensure that people use their water wisely, which helps defer putting more infrastructure in too soon.

People do not pay for water, they pay for the infrastructure.

Rural operators have an amount they are permitted for, but they have to give regular reports to their councils to ensure they are not overusing their allocation.

Why does the Labour Party only think of taxing our productive sector? It is such a nonsense and misleads the public to believe there is a problem. We need our food and water producers for we are not only consumers, we are an export nation. Our very standard of living depends on our ability to sell to the world. It is time for central government politicians to think about sharing their tax revenue with ratepayers for a change and not dumping more taxes on our producers.

M Murray-Benge, Bethlehem