How fortunate the Bay of Plenty is to have Waikato University and a German university working together here in Tauranga to enable young people to do research and develop as fine scientists, all because we have visionary leaders like Prof Chris Battershill leading the whole Faculty. To have a scientific base established at Sulphur Point would be exciting as it is an ideal place for such a base.

Buddy Mikaere asserts (Weekend Sun, August 8) that Sulphur Point was promised for some Maori cultural base many years ago, before the K route was built, and therefore cannot be used for the proposed research centre. He offers absolutely no proof of that assertion. Worse, he has lobbied the Minister so that she has now vetoed the use of just 0.7 ha of land at Sulphur Point for the centre.

If the Minister's decision is allowed to stand, it would be a tragedy – the proposed centre would have benefited all the region's young people for decades to come.

I do hope this is not the end and that the city council and the universities challenge the Minister and get her decision reversed. We need a future where all our students can be encouraged to learn so that research and development will follow.

M Murray-Benge, Bethlehem