I have read with interest the comments in both Tauranga papers. The flood/storm of 2005 brought home to the council engineers that they had real storm water problems throughout the city, be it residential, industrial or rural areas.
The various problems were noted and work was started to correct the problems. It was soon realised that the in-house engineers did not have the manpower to cope with the amount of work required.
Council contracted four consultants to work in-house to 'improve the management of storm water”.
Over the next two to three years, working in conjunction with other consultants in the city, these four engineers managed close to 40 projects at a cost to council of $70 million. Council called a halt in 2009, all be it that the four engineers were, at that stage, planning projects for 2013 and beyond.
The projects were delayed until 2020-plus. There was a major storm in 2010, and again this year; and all of our work under the four engineers performed as planned. Council is between a rock and a hard place. Any major storm is likely to show up the problems not sorted between 2007 and 2009. And they have now set aside $40 million to maybe complete the job.

Peter Turner, Pyes Pa.