It was good to see Tauranga economic development agency Priority One offer a congratulatory boost in March to the newly appointed commissioners who are currently leading the city.
“The newly appointed Tauranga City Council Commission has made a number of key decisions for the city,” said Priority One in a recent statement.
“These decisions include a $20 million investment to overhaul waste services, a commitment to lease a purpose-built Civic Administration building on Devonport Road, a $47 million investment in a new Library & Civic Amenities Building in the CBD, and the proposed redevelopment of the Memorial Park pools.”
Priority One – in the name of new chair Simon Clarke – said the organisation had watched this progress with interest and wished to congratulate the four newly appointed Commissioners (led by former National Party MP Anne Tolley), on making bold, early and swift decisions on these key matters for Tauranga.
Says Clarke: “We recognise that these decisions are significant, and they need to be made after careful consideration including canvassing community views and it is inevitable that in some cases the outcomes will not suit everyone. However, the Commissioners need to be congratulated for acting swiftly and decisively.”
According to Clarke, Tauranga City Council Elected Members have been kicking around a number of options for the last five years.
“Indecision over that period has driven uncertainty into the CBD property market, which has sent the CBD into a downward spiral.
“The decisions made this week illustrate leadership and helps create certainty for other potential developments and downtown retailers. The commitments will also hopefully have a cascading effect for others to invest.”
Priority one chief executive Nigel Tutt told Bay of Plenty Business News that Priority One expects that Tauranga City Council will continue to make good progress in the coming months, leading to higher standards of living across our community in the future.
Priority One expects that Tauranga City Council will continue to make good progress in the coming months, leading to higher standards of living across our community in the future.
“We do expect the business community will meet the commissioners at some stage,” he said.
“It’s not appropriate right now. They’re buried in the Long Term Plan (LTP), but we do know they will want to meet with the business community after they’ve published the LTP (within the next couple of weeks) and have a bit of a yarn about it.”
Tutt said that in his view the commissioners were doing a good job. “So let’s hope they keep making those calls and just get on with it”
Tutt said that in his view the decisions were not that difficult but had been procrastinated.
“Everything I’ve seen [is that] the council staff wants to get on with things … the problem has been at the governance level where they’ve continually got distracted by small issues or not managed to make decisions because it seems to be easier to kick them down the road.”
Bay of Plenty Business News welcomes more decision-making by the commissioners – and of course the active involvement of the business community.
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