The Tauranga City Council has made the decision to redevelop the Mount Hot Pools for an initial 'estimated” cost of $10 million. The decision was based on Tauranga City Aquatics (TCAL) 30% capacity business case. TCAL have been wrong before. Look at current Baywave losses. I understand there has also been talk of a multi storey car park adjacent to the pools.
However TCC have not told us how the public submissions on the Mount Hot Pools went. For your information here are the figures -
1. 335 - Refurbishment only.
2. 220 - Two storey development, cultural heritage centre etc.
3. 158 - Single storey development without cultural centre etc.
4. 151 - Minimum upgrade development.
5. 102 - Other options (Various).
If you add 1. and 4. together the total is 486 (Refurbishment and Minimum upgrade).
If you add 2. and 3. together the total is 378 (Two storey development and Single storey development).
I was told by a councillor that the public submissions were 50/50 for and against refurbishment !
The above makes very interesting reading.
Question: Why did TCC not take any notice of what the public want?
Question: What is the point of public consultation if TCC is not going to take any notice of these?
The area of public consultation by councils is one that that Rodney Hide intends to improve dramatically.
Roger Bailey, Papamoa Beach.

TCC responds:
The figures Mr Bailey quotes for the numbers of submissions are wrong. The actual list is available on our website - see ‘Hot Topics' if readers want to see it.
There has been no talk of a multi-storey carpark next to the pools. For the 11 months to May, Baywave generated a surplus of $141,000 from its operations.
Public consultation is one factor (albeit a significant one) that the mayor and councillors take into account when making their decisions. Note: the submissions received via this draft Ten Year Plan were the sixth time the community has been ‘consulted' on this issue.