Tauranga City Council now effectively concedes failure in addressing stormwater infrastructure for the past 23 years and probably other essential infrastructure.

Mayor Stuart Crosby on council forever admits it will cost upwards of $200 million to fix this mess.

Quite rightly the public is incredulous with this state of affairs.

Ratepayer assets are being splurged on non-essentials including: Baypark/Arena at $70m, Mount Greens $20m, Route K $70m, the Southern Pipeline's $260m going onto half a billion dollars, and Te Tumu landbanking at $45m etc.

Well this vindicates the critics, who've been proven absolutely right yet again - and by the time these debts plus stormwater repairs of $200m have hit us that's probably close to an unbelievable total debt of $1.25 billion - three times current level.

Bankrupt Kaipara District Council will look positively rosy in comparison.

What we see here is what growth, developers' greed and council stupidity leads to.
Yet those responsible simply walk away unscathed.

R Paterson, Matapihi.