What do Tauranga City Council engineers do these days?
TCC Councillors report Council spending on investigations into the Southern Pipeline scheme to be $10 to 12 million dollars. Those investigations revealed the cost of a new Treatment Plant at Tauriko to be $97.9 million which should do the job without the add-ons and that this scheme was rejected in favour of the Southern Pipeline to Te Maunga at $255 million.
As we now know, a comparable treatment plant has been built at Wanaka for $9.5 million, or just 10% of the revealed price of our rejected Tauriko option.
Individual Councillors have been made aware of the misgivings and recently Cr Moultrie at least asked for an explanation from Council staff as to the apparent discrepancy in cost. Guess what? No response from anyone, not a murmur it seems!
If we must spend $12 million dollars (we could possibly have built a Sewage Plant for that money) on consultants for basic drainlaying, why are Council continuing to employ qualified engineers?
The whole unwieldy Council empire needs dusting off and a semblance of responsibility and order restored.
Graham H Clarke, Tauranga.