Even though the Mayor of Tauranga has admitted that the Council is assembling, under urgency, a massive document of information spanning the entire Bay of Plenty, he still states that it is not being driven by the prospect of any possible future Local Government amalgamation.

However other mayors seem to disagree, so who is being the most factual or are we just being mislead, by our local elected officials, into a possible false sense of security?

Besides the financial cost of creating this massive document it is also a fact that the community has not been involved in the debate in any way whatsoever even though a Tauranga City councillor recently stated that it was time for the community to be included.

After the election will be too late as the new council may then believe that they already have the mandate to proceed but in reality the people who are going to be affected the most, by any future amalgamations, have not yet had any opportunity to make comment and in my view this is entirely inappropriate and unacceptable.

Future amalgamations should only ever be considered if it is a win win for all residents involved and certainly Auckland citizens would not be accepting that this is what necessarily occurred to them during the forced amalgamations under Rodney Hyde.

Be very afraid, be very wary and I would recommend voting carefully this coming election.

Mike Baker, Bethlehem.