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

We ask a lot from council.

We hope for intelligent planning and budgeting but our assessment of council performance in these areas is usually limited to the effect on rate rises. The more basic council responsibilities of sewerage and water services are easy to assess. They are either working or we have a calamity. The simple council responsibility for mowing the grass is something which we all can observe and have an opinion on. Even more with the public evidence of council meetings finishing at the end of November and not starting again until February, it is not surprising that the only calls I have had over this period have been on council inattention to its obvious responsibilities in its operation as well as its lawn maintenance.

There have been regular complaints from Omokoroa residents on walkways so overgrown that they are dangerous, of walkways that start nowhere and arrive nowhere, and of overgrown sports fields. The council response last year was that it was unfortunate but people had to recognise that this is a period when grass grows quickly and we would have to put up with it. The implication is that Mother Nature is totally inconsiderate and not being supportive of council's maintenance schedules. Here in Katikati we were not very pleased to learn last year that our lawn mowing maintenance had been let to a company in Tokoroa. It seems strange the council had decided there were no suitably qualified equipped or experienced agricultural contractors in Katikati.

Kauri Point was a hive of activity last year with council boasting of its project to upgrade the Kauri Point reserve. With wonderful support and cooperation from the local Maori the whole area was landscaped, hundreds of trees planted and a viewing platform installed. I have had a number of calls from residents complaining that the reserve is now not being mowed and, apart from a small access strip, the area is supplying a local farmer with hay.

The hearing with Local Government on the new representation strategy in November was urgent. Our new structures, wards, community beard and councillors had been challenged and had to be reviewed before March this year in time for the local body elections. Letting the grass grow under their feet has a managerial equivalent of do nothing and hope the problems all go away. With council starting again in February, it seems that this year we won't be worrying about grass, we will need to get rid of some the weeds.