It is becoming increasingly obvious that the current council, besides not being a business-friendly one, is also having major difficulties accepting the fact that festivals can also benefit the city.
The current debate over supporting the Garden and Artfest and also the Tauranga Arts Festival raises real concerns in respect to activities undertaken by many other organisations which endeavour to raise the profile of Tauranga by putting on some outstanding events.
Do the councillors not realise that the bulk of the work, at all of these flagship events, is undertaken by volunteers who commit their time without any real reward other than the satisfaction and achievement of putting on a successful event that also often attracts national attention? Rather than condemning events I would say to them get involved so that you see what real benefits there are.
The pool of funds, for these events, is $200,000 and I believe that the ratepayers of Tauranga receive exceptional value from this amount of investment in what are currently five main flagship events.
Of course we must control costs, especially when some of the funding is ratepayer-based, but then we should also be encouraging the arts, and other cultural or sporting events when there is an obvious benefit to Tauranga.

Mike Baker, Bethlehem.