In the Weekend Sun, December 18, 2014 ‘Huge bill for athletics track' it was reported that the running track would wear out earlier than expected. Tauranga City Council ratepayers had spent $330,000 in 2008 towards the total cost but no provision was made by council or the club to replace it. The bill to replace/restore it is $790,000 and there is no money to pay it.

Council is meant to allocate depreciation annually based on the cost/replacement budget and so add this to rates. This would put monies aside annually for replacement.

This is not the only item that has fallen into this financial black hole. Baypark Stadium at a cost to ratepayers of some $20m has no depreciation allocated, so there is no money to replace that either. The two waka that were removed from the Strand (wind blew one over) are classified as ‘artefacts' and have no depreciation either. How many more are there?

Council depreciation for 2014 was $45.6m, so why was only $38.8m added to rates? This is $6.8m short in 2014 alone, so not enough money (none in some cases) is being put aside to replace community assets. Over a period of time the shortfalls amount to a lot. If not [replaced] from rates that means more debt later.

I Stevenson, Tauranga City.