The Sun's August 16 editorial raises the issue of New Zealand's ‘100% pure' brand. If you live beside a Tauranga estuary, you will have difficulty accepting this label.
For more than 30 years, waterfront residents have struggled to prevent the Welcome Bay estuary from being completely overwhelmed by rubbish, debris, siltation and mangroves.
I have more than 1000 photos (one shown here), as a record of the degradation of the Welcome Bay estuary, yet Tauranga Mayor Crosby, a senior planner and the new CEO, are all still in denial.
Each one of them are refusing to discuss the effectiveness of the Tauranga City Council policies and objectives in providing environmental care for our estuaries.
By contrast, in recent months, the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, some TCC staff and some TCC councillors, such as Rick Curach and Murray Guy, have been responsive to our concerns and we are very grateful for this.
To be clear, my community's concerns relate to the Welcome Bay and Waimapu estuaries and I accept that the other Tauranga estuaries may well be ‘100% pure'.

R.Rimmer, Welcome Bay.