With the start of a new year comes hope for new opportunities for our families and communities.

My hope is that local government will see the reform of the Resource Management Act, which is stifling development, turning too many good staff into box ticking bureaucrats, pricing people out of home ownership, and butchering our democracy.

Speeding up decisions and reforming consenting processes is essential. Even at regional level, the consenting process is appallingly slow and cumbersome. To take a year to approve putting just over a metre onto an existing culvert, needed for road safety reasons, is disgraceful, and leaves a community with a dangerous SH29 intersection, when the work was ready to go at the end of 2017. This was a shameful performance by the Regional Council.

People want to live in the beautiful Bay, but need central government to work with local government to ensure the RMA is working effectively, because people want homes they can afford and highways safe and free from congestion. This is the year for action and reform. There is too much talking and not enough action.

M Murray-Benge, Bethlehem (abridged).