Mount i-Site was shut down following public outcries in 2011/2012 and re-sited onto the Port with a ‘de facto' i-Site information bureau placed at Mount Domain Office – an invisible, useless location.

Council then leased out i-Site premises, ignoring robust submissions.

They remain available for an inevitable Mount i-Site reinstatement.

The moronic upshot is Tourism BOP and TCC propose to reconstruct a brand new visitor centre on the old i-Site at an obscene cost of $2.5-3 million to service cruise ship visitors (say 20 per cent) and travelling NZ public/tourists (say 80 per cent). Costs should be met by Tauranga Port, cruise lines, tour bus operators and Tourism BOP because no more cruise ship passengers will be attracted by any new Mount Visitor Centre.

Not one dollar of TCC ratepayers' money needed to be applied to this latest aberration as the old i-Site can be taken back and refurbished once the lease expires. Elected members and bureaucratic spin-doctoring lacks credibility and Tourism BOP, which seemingly generates nothing other than council's handouts, needs to face financial reality because the current plight is their fault.

I note with utter disbelief people who should know better eulogising about this thing, and in the case of Mount Mainstreet I am gobsmacked by its backward flip-flopping from their previous stance and proposals.

Where were these voices when the 2011 closure occurred?

R Paterson, Matapihi.