Andrew von Dadelszen Regional Councillor www.envbop.govt.nz

The Bay of Plenty Regional Council needs to get serious about our harbour.

As we head into the festive break our attention focuses more and more on Tauranga's jewel, its harbour. Recreation time is here, but with another bad bout of sea lettuce in our harbour, not to mention all too many sewage spills, our harbour needs a lot of attention from our council. Recent councillor comments in The Weekend Sun about improved liaison and communication, but we expect more. Spending $1.5m (more on planning rather than actions) is a bit of a joke. The people of Tauranga, while appreciating the benefits the port brings this city, also suffer the negative impacts such as heavy traffic and loss of recreational space. This is offset by the council receiving over $21m in dividend income. Isn't it time for them to take our harbour cleanup seriously? The harbour generates the funds, and yet so little is re-invested for this ongoing jewel. In light of the dividends received, $30,000 doesn't seem a lot for sea lettuce control – this sea lettuce scourge is symbolic of a wider problem, and our residents want results, not excuses.

In the new year it will be annual plan time again and our regional councillors need to focus a lot more attention locally. We made a great start on mechanical mangrove removal this year, but we have only scratched the surface. At present there are no substantive plans for further removal beyond the current consented area, and it is time for council to detail a substantive plan for our harbour. The regional council needs an annual budget of at least $100,000 for mangrove removal, and it also needs to urgently modify its regional coastal policy statement to ensure that it isn't spending another $100,000 for each resource consent.

If you have a view on these or any other local government issues, email me: andrew@vond.co.nz