As 2018 draws to a close, let's examine what our councils in the Bay of Plenty have been up to this year.

Tauranga City Council managed to obliterate a perfectly-sound administration building then panicked, calling for ideas, while in the meantime floating a container village in direct competition with CBD businesses. The CBD container village Our Place had already received $357,824.78 of ratepayer money – then recent handed over another $60,000.

Then there's the Bella Vista subdivision debacle, costing the council millions to settle with the homeowners. Greerton, Welcome Bay and the bridge's traffic is a shambles.

Mount Maunganui's old Phoenix carpark is being transformed into a concrete jungle at a cost of millions, plus the council is very quiet about mega-million Southern Sewage Pipeline, demonstrating lack of transparency and accountability. TCC is a financial mess and that's just the tip of the iceberg!

Western Bay of Plenty District Council bumbles on day-to-day, completely transfixed on things Maori following resounding 80 per cent referendum rebuke on Maori wards.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council is even more adept at wasting money – contracting buses that don't cater for the needs of Tauranga travellers, a $30 million funding initiative for orchard developments on Maori land lauded as an investment?

Flying under the radar BOPRC spends money most people haven't a clue about, funded by rates and their cash-cow Port of Tauranga.

Can someone reveal anything these councils actually got right?

R Paterson, Matapihi.