Brian Anderson The Western Front www.sunlive.co.nz

A few years ago, I had to guess the meaning of the word truculent in a School Certificate comprehension question. It was used to describe an old engine steaming sulkily, defiant and alone, in the corner of a railway yard, fired up, but no longer in use.
I do remember using the word truculent to describe my teenage son's attitude when he spent all of his pocket money, conned me for as much again and I had just refused him any more cash for his indulgences.

A truculent attitude is evident today in Western Bay of Plenty District Council's communications and in its annual plan.

The mayor and councillors have led the way with this attitude. Recent examples include; if you don't give us the new library it will go to another town; if you don't approve the Kauri Point boat ramp, you won't get anything.
You want something done? Do you expect council to pay for it? You will have to find the money yourself. Council staff can be very helpful, but when it comes to meeting compliance obligations, the conversations can be just as difficult as with an obstreperous teenager.

Truculence, in its silent treatment form, is the most negative of all. At the recent Tauranga Harbour Recreation Strategy Forum meeting arranged by the regional council, representatives from recreation organisations and councils were present to finalise the structure of the new forum for the harbour. The strategy was heralded as a triumph of cooperation between all of the authorities in the Bay, but WBOP District Council never turned up on the night in support of its own project. An ex-district councilor did complain last year that the forum would prejudice his pet Kauri Point project, but even he snubbed the meeting.

Representatives at the meeting were advised to submit to relevant annual plans to get their projects underway, but boaties from the northern harbour had already submitted against the Kauri Point boat ramp last year. Work on the ramp has continued, more money has been spent and the project is continued in this year's budget. With nine years of consultancy fees, like so many of the council projects, it seems the project cannot be abandoned because council does not admit to mistakes.

The mayor explained that he would be economising, but not at the expense of infrastructure projects for the people. He didn't mention that most of the $70 million was for projects in Omokoroa.
I think my teenager's promises were more believable. We will all need to look closely at rates and the detail in the annual plan. A correspondent commenting on my column last week reminded me that the compliance charges for a new house is the equivalent of thirty years of rates added to the house price. We now pay twice what we paid in rates ten years ago for the same service. By the way, the steam locomotive was on its last trip to the scrap yard.