Letters: Rotorua Lakes Council transparency questioned

Rotorua Lakes Council is coming under criticism from readers. Photo / File

We must be getting near to an election of councillors, made obvious by the comments regarding "The Pied Piper Affair" (News, May 28) and allegations of defamatory statements (News, May 31). It seems to be the norm nowadays that whether it is national or regional politics that when elected people feel nervous about re-election, they tend to turn to personal barbs.

If this is going to be the level of conversation leading up to the elections, then shame on you. Where is the conversation regarding what is being done to reduce council debt, there is still a deafening silence regarding the ever-inflating cost of the Hemo Gorge Sculpture, no information regarding any insurance payout for the museum, and lack of any conversations regarding the Lakefront upgrade and how we are going to keep the boardwalk free of lakeweed without using heavy machinery.

As regards to limited terms on council, voters in the US know that they have at worst case scenario only one more term to suffer Mr Trump. Some of us here have had to suffer the same faces in council for years and years. (Abridged)

Mike Long
Lynmore

Lack of council transparency

I now know why I couldn't access the May 30 council meeting online. It's because it was removed from the council website (News, June 7). Now I and many others have to ask "What was said and by whom that was so incriminating that it could not be shared?" The organisation's role as a publisher is to publish the facts, i.e. the meeting as it was.

Why too, does there seem to be an ever-growing number of council meetings or sections of meetings being held "in confidence", i.e. in secret?

Why is so little information readily available to the public? Why do so many Official Information Act requests have to be made to glean information? The museum, any insurance payout and its burgeoning repair costs are prime examples of that.

All of the above suggest a growing lack of transparency. (Abridged)

Paddi Hodgkiss
Rotorua