Central Mount Phoenix (car) Park's proposed new name, Te Papa o Nga Manu Porotakataka, is more than a mouthful - it is an incomprehensible, inappropriate, unpronounceable moniker dreamed up by Tauranga City Council staffers and reo-ites.

Elected members, after reaching a decision to endorse this tongue twister, have come up with the novel idea of a quick-fire public consultation after the event, presumably because of public flak.

Typically of TCC, there has been no openness, no transparency and no meaningful public consultation.

Furthermore, this project has converted an asphalt carpark (essential to Mount CBD) into a concrete jungle costing millions of dollars plus overruns.

This site has, to my knowledge, never had any cultural significance and the correct name would be Mount or Mauao Open Space, because it is certainly not a ‘green urban space'. The whole project has been misrepresented.

As for ‘the place of the circling birds', over the past 50 years I have sighted very few birds other than seagulls and sparrows squabbling or over discarded takeaway food and trash. Predictably, the name looks to have been promoted by people who don't live or work in the area.

S Paterson, Ohauiti