RE: ‘Amalgamation woes we don't want' (The Weekend Sun, November 28).

Both Doug Owens and Alastair Bourne get it wrong in their call to fight amalgamation or suggesting Auckland's woes flow from a similar amalgamation to that proposed for the Western Bay of Plenty.

The amalgamation for the Western Bay is simply a merging of the territorial authorities comprising the Western Bay of Plenty District Council and the Tauranga City Council.
There is no intent to interfere or incorporate the Bay of Plenty P Regional Council into the mix, such as has been proposed in Northland, Waikato, Hawke's Bay and Wellington.

Big is not always beautiful but in the Western Bay there is a commonality of identity and purpose in what happens. Or as Sir Brian Ellwood said, in the 1989 report on reorganisation for the Bay of Plenty Region: 'There is so much that unites and so little that divides”.

A single council for the Western Bay would recognise the reality of the common community of interest that exists today where the city's growth has spilt over into the district and we are in effect one.

G Horsley, Mount Maunganui.