By ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE
The Tauranga District Council's bungling of the harbour bridge toll issue will almost certainly come back to haunt it on polling day.
With elections looming, councillors finally voted to lift the user-pays toll after more than 13 years.
But only when they were pushed to the wire by
a small group of people with a lot of faith in the justice of their cause.
The tenacious Tolls Action Group protested for more than a year that the continued use of bridge tolls to pay for other district roading projects was not lawful.
During an increasingly bitter fight, the council consistently refused to release legal opinions it claims justified continuation of the tolls. That information is still secret.
There is sympathy for the Tauranga council's dilemma over how to finance expensive and urgently needed district roading. And there was no great public outcry about introducing a future toll across town to fund Route K between the Kaimai Range and the Port of Tauranga.
It was the council's reluctance to scrap the bridge tolls sooner rather than later that eventually pushed public patience too far.
Even while relenting on the bridge charges, the council showed bad grace by threatening to prosecute objecting commuters for paltry sums.
Private motorists owed about $3357 in unpaid tolls, some of which has since been paid.
The politicians have now become more realistic and backed off, deciding in a confidential session not to order prosecutions at this stage.
Rather, they will pursue "normal debt collection procedures" for money owed to the council.
If that was meant as an olive branch, it could be too little too late.
The June 29 resolution to end the Tauranga Harbour Bridge toll (it was lifted at 11 pm on July 22) was supported by all but one councillor, Joye Adams, who abstained. Along with Mayor Noel Pope, Elinor Elder and Ross Harris, she is not seeking re-election.
Those standing again are Bob Addison, Len Bailey, Gregory Brownless, Stuart Crosby (mayoralty too), Mary Dillon, Bob Harnor, Alan McKenna, David Stewart, Gordon Taylor and Jean White.
Feature: Local body elections 2001
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