Re: The Life+Style article ‘Paula's passion' (The Weekend Sun, March 3).

Paula Gaelic cited that ‘the lack of support from our council' made the task of establishing the Katikati Heritage Museum - now Western Bay Museum - more difficult.

How can this be? The Western Bay of Plenty District Council, using ratepayers' money, supported the museum in the following ways.

Ignoring community opposition it agreed to assist the original purchase of the Katikati Heritage Museum by going guarantor for its mortgage.

When that went belly up, the council purchased the artefact collection, paid for collation, storage and the manager's salary.

It allocated and renovated the prime Main St building - the old fire station for the museum for which they now pay $10 per year peppercorn rental.

The council has also agreed to provide grants of $60,000 per year for three years and agreed to capital expenditure of $75,000 for museum furniture.

Considering all this support and the fact that all ratepayers in the Western BOP are making an annual contribution through their rates to this project - Katikati Ward are paying 50 per cent ($7.25 per household) and the other 50 per cent is paid by the rest of the Western Bay including Te Puke and Maketu as part of their general rating charges.

I would suggest Paula and her group of supporters reshape their thinking and express some gratitude to the ratepayers, who were constantly told the museum would never be a charge on their rates. Yeah, right.

W Rains, Katikati.