At present TCC is paying around $800,000 a year to keep museum items in storage, which to me is dead money.

Council has also spent thousands of dollars sussing out possible sites for a museum, and subsidises the art gallery for around $800,000 a year.

A new city library is now to be built at a cost of around $25 million. I no longer visit the town library because of lack of parking and/or parking costs.

How much money does the QE2 centre return to council every year? I'm sure it wouldn't be anything like what ratepayers are paying to keep the museum items in storage and the art gallery propped up.

Why not close the current art gallery and sell it to developers who could make better use of the site in town?

Forget about building another library in town. Instead, let's renovate and redevelop the QE2 site at Memorial Park to incorporate not only a small museum and art gallery, but also a library and small café. There is plenty of free parking and a lovely outlook across the park to the estuary.

People will be more inclined to visit the three sites if they are all situated together. I certainly would!

There may even be some money left over to finish off the Memorial Park to Tauranga boardwalk around the estuary.

L Askin, Bethlehem (Abridged).