It was with interest that I read the letter from R. McGuinness headed 'Debt Scares Pants Off” in which he highlighted the number of people in the TCC area and how much their council owes. It equates to $3,680 per person.
However, he does not mention the Western Bay of Plenty with approx. 40,000 population and Council debt in the order of $170 million. This equates to $4,250. How on earth can Council finances get back to manageable proportions?
Western Bay Council had little or no debt in the 1990's when some bright spark in Central Government came up with the bright idea to retire septic tanks adjacent to water – sea, river, lake etc. They produced data to back up the directive to councils.
The majority of councils accepted what government required and went ahead with the work. The majority of those councils are now heavily in debt and ratepayers are now paying approximately two and a half times the rates.
There are no published figures showing how much better the water quality is in our inner harbour because it is farm run-off into our streams and rivers that pollutes it. One council took the step to engage independent consultants who reported that only 10% of pollution was caused by septic tanks but 90% by farm runoff.
Western Bay Council, and there are many others, have spent all this money and achieved no discernible improvement to the quality of water in the inner harbour. I have tried to obtain before and after figures, both from Western Bay and the Regional Council but despite being assured that the data would be sent, have received nothing!

Peter Turner, Pyes Pa.