Re the article by Hamish Carter in last week's Weekend Sun.
Some of the quotes of the people interviewed need to be questioned. I have been a board member on Tauranga Mainstreet for two and half years and resigned in the middle of the 2011 period.
I'm speaking from experience. Mainstreet was an independent organisation funded by a CBD rating charge and during my involvement was making good progress in efforts to get much needed free parking.
About this time Priority One shifted from Chapel Street which is not within Mainstreet's boundaries, to the CBD.
It turns out they were and still are contracted to Council to work on the CBD issues which included stopping the free parking movement.
The Makeup of Mainstreet is as follows:-
1 Chamber of Commerce representative, 1 Councillor rep,1 lawyer,1 accountant,1 Priority One rep,6 retail reps, two who are involved in business closures of long established business's and who will soon have to resign. Of these people six are members of Priority One. So you can see Mainstreet is now stacked heavily in favor of Priority One and Council. We now have a manager and his assistant protecting their jobs and suddenly the business people have very little say in the operation of Mainstreet.
The funding for Priority One is made up of Council funds to the tune of $861,695 and member funds worth $280,407 as at 31March 2011.This is a lot more than the half that Andrew Coker, Priority One's CEO was quoting.
This would suggest councils have a large say in how Priority One operates.
As very few of their members operate from the CBD it appears they are oblivious to what Priority One actually does and the totally devious way they operate.
Mention must also be made about the City Centre Action Group of which Priority One is the main player. This group is made up of Priority One, Tauranga City Council, BOP Property Council, Tauranga Chamber of Commerce, Creative Tauranga, Tourism Bay of Plenty, Maori representatives, Tertiary representatives and Tauranga Mainstreet.
These facts must tell you that the businesses in the CBD have no independent say in the future of their livelihoods unless they want to spend huge amounts of time trying to fight the decisions made by Council and its employees. My concern is the council will once again waste a huge amount of money on the waterfront without tangible results while the CBD slowly starves to death.
It's time for the council to take notice of those who strive to make a living in the CBD and who genuinely know what's needed to regain viability and with that will come the vitality that the Council and its affiliated organisations seek. The CBD can no longer be the council's cash cow. (abridged)

Bill Campbell, Tauranga.